In the weeks leading to Nov. 3, 2020, U.S. presidential election, incumbent Donald Trump had wrongly predicted the stock market would crash if Joe Biden won the election.
Last week, fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits than at any time since March 2020. Last month, retail sales in the U.S. rose by 9.8 percent, the largest increase in nearly a year. Factory activity in the state of New York just hit its highest level since 2017; in Philadelphia, manufacturers are now more confident about business conditions than they have been since 1973.
Oh yes the stock market has boomed. Both the DOW Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 have gained over 9% since January 20.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had projected a 5.8 percent jump in retail sales in March, but the combined effect of the American Rescue Plan’s $1,400 stimulus checks, strong job growth, and rising vaccination rates provided a more potent boost to commerce than experts had foreseen. The rebound was especially strong at restaurants and apparel retailers, which saw 13.4 percent and 18.3 percent increases in overall sales values, respectively. But the surge wasn’t limited to sectors hampered by the pandemic; furniture outlets, e-commerce shops, and other businesses that thrived throughout the COVID crisis still enjoyed an uptick in revenues last month.
What is next? President Biden this week unveiled a massive infrastructure proposal that he says would deliver a “once-in-a-generation investment” in the United States at a cost of $2 trillion will be another stimulus that will employ tens of thousands of working class and middle class workers in decent jobs.
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