Pandemic Recession Approaching a Dire Turning Point

Pandemic Recession Approaching a Dire Turning Point
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Americans are five months deep in a historic economic crisis. From February to April, the country’s unemployment rate shot up from under 4 percent to nearly 15 percent. It has since declined to roughly 10 percent—about what it was at its peak during the Great Recession.

In response to that turmoil, the government spent $2 trillion via legislation called the CARES Act to support American people and businesses. The act provided households with crucial financial help for several months, notably in the form of an extra $600 in unemployment assistance a week. But that help was cut off last month, and without additional support, American families face “a looming hunger crisis and a looming eviction crisis,” Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard, told me.

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