The arrival of the first batch of stimulus checks helped retail sales explode in March, a performance that lifted the stock market to record highs Thursday. Retail figures jumped 9.8%, boosted by a big bump in spending in the bar and restaurant industry, as relaxed COVID restrictions had more people resuming eating out and attending Happy Hour.
The retail rebound had a good-news companion in another key economic indicator, jobless claims. The number of Americans filing for unemployment fell to 576,000, a record low since the pandemic began.
Financial experts like Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, say the U.S. economy isn’t just on the rebound, but poised for an economic boom.
“At long last the economic recovery appears to be picking up speed.”
The stimulus checks provided by President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill are widely seen as helping to fan the flames of the bounce back, as Americans have taken those checks and put a lot of that money back into the economy by way of retail spending. Combined with the rollout of the vaccines continuing to boost optimism that the country may soon put the pandemic in the rearview, it’s showing that the previously-predicted “Biden boom” is in full swing.
As one Twitter user pointed out, it’s as if the White House has figured out its own version of “trickle down economics”…that actually works.