Ep 198: Pigs Fly—The Fed Says Jobs Are THE Priority; Hotel Workers in The Abyss

Working Life Podcast

Support the Working Life Network here: www.patreon.com/WorkingLifePodcast and at ActBlue: secure.actblue.com/donate/working-life-1 Episode 198: The most important political figure in your economic life—to be sure, the boss of a company has got a lot of power—is not the president of the United States, no matter who that is. It’s probably the head of the Federal Reserve Board. We know interest rates are at historic lows and mortgage rates are crazy low because the Fed has intervened to keep the country from collapsing even further into the abyss we are in, an abyss Republicans in Congress don’t seem to care about. Which is why what the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced recently is pretty important—the Fed will keep its main attention on employment. Is this just a pandemic-linked shift that will eventually go away and send the Fed back to doing the bidding of the banks and the bond markets? I poke at this topic with my favorite Fed watcher, Dean Baker, senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Support the Working Life Network here: www.patreon.com/WorkingLifePodcast and at ActBlue: secure.actblue.com/donate/working-life-1 It’s hard to think of a sector in the economy that has been hit harder than hospitality and tourism, and specifically, hotels. I mean, ask yourself: unless it was a matter of high urgency would you travel right now and book a hotel and stay somewhere just for fun? Ok, if you say you would, you are more brave and adventurous than I am. Support the Working Life Network here: www.patreon.com/WorkingLifePodcast and at ActBlue: secure.actblue.com/donate/working-life-1 For most hotel workers, however, the future looks bleak today—paychecks are gone, enhanced unemployment has run out and, soon, health insurance coverage costs will be almost entirely on the workers once union financial support expires. To hear more about the economic struggle of hotel workers, I’m joined by Lourdes Maquera, a housekeeper for the past ten years at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii, and Bryant de Venecia, the communications organizer for UNITE HERE’s Local 5. -- Jonathan Tasini Follow me on Twitter @jonathantasini Sign up for The Working Life Podcast at: www.workinglife.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.tasini.3