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Investing in an Economy of Belonging
By Joseph Tomás McKellar, PICO California Our economy needs a moral revolution. Take California, for example. Despite having the world’s fifth-largest economy, the state produces immense racial and economic inequality, exacerbating pressures...
Monterey Bay Economic Partnership to hold in-person State of the Region
September 15, 2022 By Tess Kenny SEASIDE — After two years of convening virtually, the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership’s annual State of the Region will take place in person next month — a timely setting as the event eyes topics of recovery...
The Renewable Resource of Mutual Care
January 3, 2022 By Kelly Candaele Manuel Pastor and Chris Benner are both professors and public policy experts, Pastor at USC, Benner at the University of California, Santa Cruz. While respected academics, both have worked tirelessly to put...
Reimagining our economy for the benefit of all
October 13, 2021 By Allison Arteaga SoergelFaculty members at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) and the University of Southern California (USC) released a new book, Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter, that offers a road map and conceptual...
For a Path Forward on Climate, Let’s Learn From the Original New Deal
Dr. Manuel Pastor and J. Mijin Cha | To envision a path forward on environmental policy, we should remember some key lessons from the original New Deal, the 1930s-era policies that pulled the United States out of the Great Depression through a combination of relief programs, public-works projects, financial reforms and progressive regulation.
After COVID-19, Here’s How We Can Make Sure Everyone Can Heal
Dr. Manuel Pastor | When we emerge from this crisis, it will be a bit like the end of a movie about an imagined apocalypse: Many people will be crawling out of their homes with their savings demolished, health shattered, jobs lost and education interrupted — and they will be suffering from trauma. Expecting everyone to just bounce back is a bit like thinking a computer-based vaccination system will give everyone an equal shot at a vaccine.
The Business Case for Vaccine Equity
Dr. Manuel Pastor | No one should be surprised that America’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout system has produced sharp racial disparities in vaccination rates – the system has played upon existing inequalities from digital access, to quality of employment, to transportation access. Indeed, I would have flunked any of my graduate students had they failed to anticipate what was soon to occur. The positive news is that together with the business community, we can achieve vaccine equity in a way that gets us back on our feet for good.
Why the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Shouldn’t Be Viewed as Second Class
California failed to center its vaccine rollout around equity, according to Manuel Pastor, the director of USC's Equity Research Institute and a member of Governor Gavin Newsom's COVID Recovery Task Force. But that’s changing, he says. “Things that...
Three California Latinos serve in Joe Biden’s cabinet now that Xavier Becerra is confirmed
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is the latest Hispanic American from the Golden State to join the Biden administration. The state attorney general now joins other cabinet-level Latinos leaders who held prominent positions in...
In L.A. County, Covid Is Hitting Black and Latino Residents Hardest
In Los Angeles County, this winter’s Covid surge revealed a stark racial and economic divide. The disease killed Black and Latino residents at two to three times the rate of white Angelenos. The New York Times went inside the homes and hospital...