Lindsay Alexandra Owens is an American economic sociologist and academic who serves as the executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit public policy think tank.[1] Owens is best known for her academic research of economic recessions in the United States and outspoken public commentary of the role that corporate profiteering plays in inflation.[2][3] She previously served as a fellow at the liberal think tank Roosevelt Institute.[4]
Lindsay Owens | |
|---|---|
Lindsay Owens offering testimony during a Senate Budget Committee hearing | |
| Occupation(s) | Economist, Executive Director |
| Academic background | |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania (BA) Stanford University (MA)(PhD) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Sociology Economic policy Economic sociology Political science |
In April 2023, Owens was named to the Washingtonian's "Most Influential People Shaping Policy" list, noting that "Owens is known in media circles for her skills in communicating ways to better understand inflation and corporate profiteering."[5]
Education
editOwens holds a Ph.D. and a Master's degree in sociology from Stanford University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. As a doctoral student at Stanford, Owens was a National Poverty Fellow at the Center on Poverty and Inequality and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.[6] Her doctoral research into public attitudes of Wall Street banks found that "animosity toward the financial sector reached its highest level in 40 years in 2010."[7][8] In 2013, Owens received the Robert Dentler Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on Public Sociology and Sociological Practice as the co-editor of a chart book on poverty and inequality in the United States.[9]
Writings and commentary
editOwens has written extensively on recessions, housing, polling, and economic inequality.[10] Her academic research has been published in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Social Forces. Owens is a contributing author to The Great Recession, edited by David Grusky, Bruce Western, and Christopher Wimer.[11]
Owens' economic commentary on Wall Street, inflation, and corporate profiteering has appeared in national publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Boston Globe,[12][13][14] and she has appeared frequently as a featured on-air guest on live news and podcasts, including MSNBC, PBS NewsHour, NPR, and Crooked Media's Pod Save America.[15][16][17][18] Owens has appeared multiple times on The Problem with Jon Stewart as a featured guest and panelist to discuss inflation and corporate profiteering, where Jon Stewart referred to her as a "brilliant economist" during a recent appearance.[19][20]
Government service
editOwens served as a senior economic policy advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren and deputy chief of staff and legislative director to former Representative Keith Ellison and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, where, as the Business Insider notes, Owens "was instrumental in crafting and passing legislation to expand the social safety net, increase power for workers, and build a more inclusive economy for all."[21] In her memoir, Congresswoman Jayapal credits Owens for helping craft Medicare for All legislation in the U.S. House.[22]
Activities
editDuring her tenure at Groundwork Collaborative, Owens has spoken out about the link between price hikes and corporate profiteering and encouraged the White House and Congress to take a tougher position on monopoly power.[23] She testified before the Senate Budget Committee at a hearing in April 2022 titled, "Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation?" where she spoke about the role of corporate profiteering in rising prices.[24]
During the 2021–2023 inflation surge in the United States, Owens was critical of the Federal Reserve's approach to lowering rising prices with interest rate hikes, claiming economic inequality will worsen during a possible recession that follows.[25] She claimed so-called profiteering by corporations is a cause of inflation and urged policymakers to institute a tax on excess profits as a solution.[26] Other liberal economists have dismissed this argument, including current U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who points mainly to supply and demand as the leading cause of inflation,[27] and economist Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, who called it a "distraction" and a "bad theory of inflation."[28] In an interview with The New York Times, Owens clarified that profiteering "is an accelerant of price increases...It is not the primary cause," pointing to earnings call research from her organization.[29]
During the 2023 United States debt-ceiling crisis, Owens urged President Joe Biden's administration to "not give into hostage-taking," referring to negotiations between the White House and Congressional Republicans, where she called for more tax increases instead of spending cuts.[30] Owens also called on the Biden administration to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment as a strategy to avoid default.[31] After negotiators from the White House and House Republican leadership struck a deal to raise the debt ceiling and cap discretionary spending, Owens criticized the compromise saying it "represents the worst of conservative budget ideology," citing the effects flat spending may have on programs like Head Start and rental assistance.[32][33]
References
edit- ^ "Meet Our Team". Groundwork Collaborative. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
- ^ "Lindsay A. Owens, PhD". Google Scholar. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
- ^ Owens, Lindsay (2022-05-05). "I Listened In on Big Business. It's Profiting From Inflation, and You're Paying for It". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
- ^ "Lindsay Owens". Economic Hardship Reporting Project. 12 March 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
- ^ "Washington DC's 500 Most Influential People of 2023". Washingtonian Magazine. 2023-04-27. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
- ^ "Lindsay Owens". Center on Poverty and Inequality. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Erman, Michael (2013-09-15). "REUTERS/IPSOS POLL-Five years after Lehman, Americans still angry at Wall St". Reuters. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Owens, Lindsay (2011-10-07). "40-year low in America's view of Wall Street". CNN. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ "CPI Fellows Recognized for Innovative Data Deck". Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. August 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- ^ "Lindsay A. Owens, PhD". Google Scholar. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
- ^ Owens, Lindsay (2011). "Chapter 5 How Much Wealth Was Destroyed in the Great Recession?". In Grusky, David; Western, Bruce; Wimer, Christopher (eds.). The Great Recession. Russell Sage Foundation. pp. 127–158.
- ^ Stein, Jeff; Siegel, Rachel (2022-01-26). "What should the White House do to combat inflation? Experts weighed in with 12 ideas". Washington Post. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Owens, Lindsay (2022-05-05). "I Listened In on Big Business. It's Profiting From Inflation, and You're Paying for It". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Owens, Lindsay (2022-10-26). "Who's really to blame for inflation". Boston Globe. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Jones, Ja'han (2022-02-11). "Corporations are getting off scot-free in the inflation blame game". MSNBC. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Solman, Paul (2022-04-12). "Why corporations are reaping record profits with inflation on the rise". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Kelly, Mary Louise (2022-10-11). "Why some blame record corporate profits for high prices". NPR. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ ""Mitch Better Have Their Money."". Pod Save America. 2022-09-13. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ "Corporate Greed Is Causing Inflation - The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast". The Problem with Jon Stewart. 2022-10-11. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ "The Inflation Blame Game". The Problem with Jon Stewart. 2023-03-17. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
- ^ "Lindsay Owens, PhD". Business Insider. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
- ^ Jayapal, Pramila (2020-06-30). Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman's Guide to Politics and Political Change. The New Press. p. 263. ISBN 9781620971451.
- ^ Stein, Jeff (2022-01-10). "White House allies split over inflation plan as Biden focuses on corporate greed". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ "Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation?". United States Senate Committee on the Budget. 4 April 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Schneider, Howard (2022-12-20). "Recession, or recession-ish? Fed outlook for U.S. walks a fine line". Reuters. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
- ^ Davidson, Kate (2022-11-28). "'A return to the bad old days' at the Fed". Politico. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ Condon, Christopher (2022-06-09). "Janet Yellen Rejects Idea Corporate Greed Is to Blame for Inflation". Bloomberg. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- ^ Zeballos-Roig, Joseph (2022-01-16). "A former top Obama economist throws cold water on the Biden administration's favorite inflation argument: 'Corporate greed is a bad theory'". Business Insider. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- ^ Lopez, German (2022-06-14). "Inflation and Price Gouging". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
- ^ Kane, Paul; Pager, Tyler (2023-05-11). "Debt ceiling meeting between Biden, congressional leaders postponed". Washington Post. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
- ^ Corbett, Jessica (2023-05-17). "Progressive Senators Tell Biden: Prepare to Invoke 14th Amendment to Prevent Default". Common Dreams. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
- ^ Johnson, Jake (2023-05-28). ""The worst of conservative budget ideology": Progressives condemn Biden-GOP debt ceiling deal". Salon. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
- ^ Tankersley, Jim (2023-05-29). "Why Spending Cuts Likely Won't Shake the Economy". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 May 2023.