Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, once concluded: “Any assessment of the distributional consequences of monetary policy must recognise that the negative effects of unemployment and volatile inﬂation fall predominantly on the poorest in society.” [41]  5 Conclusion Ladies and gentlemen, The pandemic could exacerbate a longer-run rise in economic inequalities that had already been a concern before the current crisis.
The same cannot be said of the U.S. labour market, which has borne the brunt of adjustment. The unemployment rate remains very high at 9.6 per cent, the incidence of longterm unemployment reached a record level above 40 per cent (Chart 5), and underemployment in the form of involuntary part-time work is rampant.