Before Covid-19 struck, the nation’s economy had been booming. When the coronavirus first surged in the U.S. last spring, most communities halted much of their economic activity to stop the spread of the virus, with 22 million Americans losing their jobs in the spring.
After that massive initial plunge, there were signs of recovery, including the return of millions of jobs. But we’re a long way from a healthy economy, experts say, and the pandemic’s resurgence this fall prompted new closures.
Businesses such as airlines, restaurants, hotels, and theaters have been particularly hard hit and will take a long time to recover.
“The basic problem is that we put the economy into a medically induced coma,” says David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution. “Biden’s economic problem is Covid. Get the pandemic under control, and you’ve pretty much addressed the problem.”
Beyond trying to get people back to work, Biden has a broader economic agenda. He wants to spend big on infrastructure, health care, tackling climate change, and investing in science and technology research. To fund these initiatives, he’ll likely seek to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on corporations. But to make that happen, he’ll need to get legislation through a closely divided Congress.