CEPR News January 16, 2026 |
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CEPR condemned the Trump administration’s January 3 illegal military assault on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. We have continued to post updates on the administration’s Venezuela policy, its threats toward other countries in the region, and resistance to all this from US members of Congress, foreign governments, organizations, and individuals on our tracker. Last week, the US Senate voted to advance a War Powers Resolution that would curb Trump’s hostilities toward Venezuela ― a move that CEPR commended.
In an op-ed published by the Los Angeles Times just before the Senate vote on Wednesday, Mark Weisbrot writes that the War Powers Resolution “is not just a political fight, but a matter of life and death.” He notes that even a threatened WPR constrains Trump’s ability to expand military and coercive economic actions against Venezuela, as happened in 2019 with the war in Yemen.
CEPR experts have done many interviews about Trump’s attack on Venezuela and its implications, with outlets such as Fareed Zakaria GPS, The New York Times (and its Opinions Podcast), Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post, KPFA and Bloomberg Businessweek Daily. We will continue to monitor the situation and will continue to support efforts to end the US’s illegal acts of war ― including the current oil blockade and other sanctions. See more below.
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| The High Cost of Living: What Working Families Pay For Health Care
New CEPR research finds that a typical working family in the US is paying nearly $4,000 in out of pocket medical costs – a number that will be substantially higher due to the recent expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies. The study explains that these figures come into sharper focus when one considers how many families are “cost burdened” ― meaning they spend ten percent or more of their income on health care. In 2024, roughly one in eight working families (13.3 percent) reached that threshold; 22.1 percent of those in the bottom quintile of family income were cost burdened ― roughly double the 11.2 percent rate for upper-middle-income households, and five times the rate for the best-off fifth of families.
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US Sanctions Policy: Frequently Asked Questions Update
CEPR has updated its Frequently Asked Questions report on US sanctions policy, an overview on how unilateral economic sanctions work, their illegality under various international laws, and how they have affected targeted countries from Afghanistan to Cuba to North Korea to Venezuela. Read more here.
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The Black Jobs Deficit Cost Black America $87 Billion in 2025
A new analysis by Algernon Austin finds that Black America needed about 1.8 million more people working to have the same employment rates (employment-to-population ratios) as White America in 2025. This Black jobs deficit – which rose 20 percent from its 2024 level – costs Black America about $87 billion in lost income.
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Trump and Rubio Want to Interfere Throughout Latin America
“For Trump, it’s about oil. He’s stated this repeatedly… But for Marco Rubio [United States Secretary of State], the issue is much more about regime change,” Mark Weisbrot told Brazilian investigative news outlet Pública in a recent interview. “This regime change operation in Venezuela has been going on for 25 years. … And this has much more to do with power than with oil.” Read the full interview here.
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Unemployment Edges Down, Economy Adds 50K Jobs in December
The December jobs report showed a modest drop in the unemployment rate. But Dean Baker notes that overall employment growth has slowed to a crawl, and the rise in involuntary part-time work is one more sign of labor market distress. (For more of Baker’s analysis of the new numbers, read “Three Bad Items and Three Good Items in the December Jobs Report.”)
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Without Oil Revenue, Venezuela Can’t Feed Its People - CEPR’s Francisco Rodríguez on Democracy Now!
Referring to the US blockade of Venezuelan oil, Francisco Rodríguez told Democracy Now! that “Effectively, the Venezuelan economy runs on the revenues from oil sales. Oil is more than 90 percent of the country’s exports ... [so] unless they want to cause a famine in Venezuela, this money has to come back to Venezuela to fund Venezuelan imports of essentials, of food, of medicines, of agricultural input …” Listen to the full interview here.
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Know someone who would want to work at what The Washington Post calls one “of the most prominent think tanks on the left?” CEPR has an opening for a Director of Development. See details and how to apply here.
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The Wall Street Journal, quoting Francisco Rodríguez, U.S. Pours More Firepower Into the Caribbean as Trump Ramps Up Threats
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CNN, quoting Dean Baker, Why Tariffs Have Hit Americans’ Jobs Harder Than Their Shopping Carts
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The New York Times, citing Francisco Rodríguez, U.S. Issues New Sanctions Targeting Maduro’s Family and the Oil Sector
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The Telegraph, citing Eileen Appelbaum, Private Equity Barons Target Savers in Hunt for ‘The Perfect Bailout’
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Washington Post, quoting Dean Baker, Trump Says the Job Market is Booming for US-Born. The Data Doesn’t Show It.
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El Diario, quoting Francesca Emanuele and Alex Main, Trump estrecha el cerco sobre Venezuela por tierra, mar y aire
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