May 10, 2020

Trump Officials Have Bad News About the Economy

The unemployment rate could rise to more than 20 percent, they say.

When Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin joined news anchor Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday this morning, he shared a grim picture of the state of America’s economy.

“Mr. Secretary, what is the real unemployment rate in the United States as we talk today?” Wallace asked, referencing a Friday report from the Department of Labor that estimated the unemployment rate at 14.7 percent as of April 18, not including the people who aren’t actively looking for work due to the current pandemic. 

Mnuchin dodged the question at first, but Wallace pressed on. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics says what they call the ‘real unemployment number’ for April” which includes people who are not looking for work, “is 22.8 percent,” Wallace said. But that does not include “the 7 million people who have lost their jobs since [April 18]. Aren’t we talking close to 25 percent at this point, which is Great Depression neighborhood?”

“Chris, we could be,” Mnuchin answered. And it will likely get worse. Unlike the Great Depression, he said, the unemployment rate is a result of artificially shutting the economy down because of the coronavirus. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if you close down the economy that half the workforce didn’t work.”

Mnuchin’s outlook was very much in line with appearances by other Trump officials on the Sunday morning news shows.

White House Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett told CBS’ Margaret Brennan that he expects unemployment to bottom out in May or June at “rates north of 20 [percent].” He added, “We understand why the economy is slowing down, and we expect that we can reverse it.”

Meanwhile, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, “I don’t want to sugarcoat it because I think the numbers for May are going to be also very difficult numbers. It’s going to take a while for the reopening to have an impact.”

While it’s unclear how many Americans will get their jobs back when the pandemic is over, Kudlow offered viewers a “glimmer of hope” in the new unemployment numbers: “Eighty percent of it was furloughs and temporary layoffs. That, by the way, doesn’t assure that you will go back to a job, but it says strongly that the cord between the worker and the business is still intact.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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