Reddit, Robinhood and hedge funds face Congress
Feb 18, 2021

Reddit, Robinhood and hedge funds face Congress

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Elected officials in Washington get into the GameStop trading frenzy today. Plus, 861,000 more people registered for unemployment last week. Before the pandemic, there had never once been a week even above 700,000. And, people who are undocumented were excluded from relief money under the CARES Act. We speak with a restaurant worker in Los Angeles about his experience.

Segments From this episode

Some of what we're seeing in those high jobless claims numbers is a backlog that's finally being cleared

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, says there was a lapse when the latest COVID relief package from the federal government passed in December and some unemployment benefits were extended again. “We were already going to take time for people to get the money that they were owed, let alone what they could qualify for. And this added another layer on to that,” she said. That aside, Swonk says, “the labor market just isn’t healing.”

Undocumented workers who lost restaurant jobs struggle to get relief

Feb 18, 2021
We hear from one line cook who lost his job when the pandemic hit and has since been unable to find another restaurant job.
Perhaps no group is more in need than restaurant workers. Many of them are undocumented, and were left out of CARES Act relief.
Volha Shakhava via Getty Images

Music from the episode

Web of Deception Thievery Corporation

The team

Victoria Craig Host, BBC
Stephen Ryan Senior Producer, BBC
Jonathan Frewin Producer, BBC
Daniel Shin Producer
Jay Siebold Technical Director
Brian Allison Engineer
Meredith Garretson Morbey Senior Producer
Erika Soderstrom Producer
Rose Conlon Producer
Alex Schroeder Producer