Chart of the Day: 1 Million New Unemployment Claims This Week?

Unemployment claims last week were about a quarter higher than the week before. This week they’ve already doubled and may double again when every state is counted. Justin Wolfers has the chart:

This is just the start, and it’s the reason that a $1,000 check is so inadequate. We’re facing a crisis that will last for months at least, and if we want people to continue spending we need to provide them with the security of knowing that they’ll have an income for that entire time. Otherwise they’ll hoard their money just the same as they’re hoarding food and toilet paper now. Expanded unemployment insurance will help, but it’s not enough. We need to commit to replacing upwards of 70-80 percent of lost income. Or maybe even more.

And this needs to apply to just about everyone. You might think that someone with a six-figure income can get by, but if they lose their job they probably can’t. Even most upper middle-class folks don’t have a lot of savings, and their mortgages and car payments and credit card bills are all at upper-middle-class levels. They might be better off than the poor, but most of them will still run out of money pretty quickly if they get laid off.

If Donald Trump is dead set on mailing out checks with a MAGA hat on the back, I guess there are worse things than letting him do it. But make no mistake: this is just a reelection stunt. One way or another, we need to rescue both consumers and businesses with serious money that will last until the crisis is over. Let’s knock off the bullshit and get started.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate