In this time of pandemic, we would gladly take up the slogan of Yves Montand, in a landmark political program, in 1984: “Long live the crisis! “ In any case, Americans have never been so rich, according to the Federal Reserve. Their total wealth reached, at the end of September, 123.520 billion dollars, or six times the gross domestic product. An increase of 7.6% in one year and 3.2% in a quarter, according to statistics released Thursday, December 10. Explanation of the increase: the surge of Wall Street, which allowed in three months an increase in wealth of 2.8 trillion, and the sharp rise in real estate, to the tune of 400 billion – taking advantage of zero interest rates to get into debt, Americans flee to larger single-family homes, in order to protect themselves from Covid-19 and to telecommute there.
During the crisis, revenues, which had broken records in 2019, also soared, due to the colossal aid plans decided by Congress. Even though most federal aid ended at the end of July, household net income was still 6.3% higher in October compared to the average for 2019. This is what allowed Donald Trump to ” evoke a recovery in V: sharp fall and strong rebound in the economy. Most economists predicted there was going to be an inverted square root recovery: steep fall, semi-recovery followed by stagnation. This is evidenced by the sharp slowdown in job creation (245,000 in November against 610,000 in October), while only half of the 22 million jobs destroyed in March and April have been recreated.
“A slip down”
In this context, the elected president, Joe Biden, he continued the declination of the alphabet, and evokes a recovery in K, which would benefit the rich and penalize the most modest. “Economists are talking about a K-shaped recovery. Like the two lines coming out of a K, some people see their prospects skyrocket while most others see their economic well-being plummet.”, explained Joe Biden, on 1er December.
Before the Covid, unemployment fell to 3.5%, its lowest level since the late 1960s
“For those at the top, jobs have returned and their wealth is increasing. For example, sales of luxury homes have increased by more than 40% compared to last year. But for those in the middle and the bottom, it’s a slide down. They have to figure out how to pay the bills and get food on the table. Nearly one in six tenants was behind on rent payments at the end of October ”, assured Joe Biden, who promised to create “A recovery for all” and to do “Advancing racial equity”.
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