Call it a trilogy... The third of the "stimuli" is coming. In March 2020, we got a massive $2T rescue package (feat. $1.2K checks for most Americans). In December, we got a $900B package to tide us over (feat. $600 checks). Now, Congress is closing in on a $1.9T stimulus. House Dems released some juicy deets yesterday:
Why now... The stock market is at record highs thanks to low interest rates, strong tech earnings, and this upcoming stimulus. But the US economy isn't doing so hot: in January, the economy added only 49K jobs — and the unemployment rate barely budged, falling to 6.3%. That’s still a big improvement from April, when unemployment hit 14.7% after the US lost ~22M jobs. Buuuut...
This is (hopefully) the final stretch... but it might be the longest and toughest in the road to recovery. It’s getting harder each month for the US economy to gain back jobs, and it could be even harder to bring back people who dropped out. And GDP is taking a hit: the US economy shrank 3.5% in 2020, the largest shrinkage in 74 years. On the upside, GDP is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2021 (thanks partly to stimulus spending). But employment isn’t expected to bounce back for several years.