COVID-19 has brought about unprecedented unemployment and financial insecurity, but it’s not the first time people have faced challenges fulfilling some of their most basic needs.
The Canadian federal government’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan includes tax-related measures. It’s helpful to examine tax supports for individuals by considering the past, present and future.
Unemployed people wait outside a government office in NYC in 1933.
AP Photo
Some economists are predicting joblessness to surpass the record level experienced at the height of the Great Depression as 22 million people file for unemployment benefits.
Waitress Casey Stewart works at two restaurants, at least one which may have to close for at least a week or more.
AP Photo/Kathy Willens
We cannot have a healthy economy without healthy people.
Shutdown in Seattle to slow the spread of coronavirus empties the streets, March 26, 2020. Less economic activity means less revenue for utilities.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
A universal basic income could provide financially precarious people with the money they need. And it would keep money flowing through the financial system.
Health care systems around the world are ramping up their response to the spread of COVID-19, like this hospital in Washington state.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
With a global recession looking increasingly likely, a finance scholar offers guidance on how to ride it out.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt arrive to speak at a press conference.
Lukas Coch/AAP
It’s the ultimate bubble news perhaps, but this week the Department of Parliamentary Services put out a circular saying work was underway to ensure Parliament House “is prepared to manage any potential…
Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann at Senate estimates on Thursday.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Australia’s three-decade run of near continuous economic growth is set to end, with treasury warning of a hit to growth of ‘at least’ 0.5%, potentially followed by a ‘prolonged downturn’.