St. Louis Fed President James Bullard liked the idea of expanded unemployment benefits during the dark days of the coronavirus shutdown, but he doesn’t want them to continue through the recovery. Instead, he wants policymakers in Washington to create incentives that make it more enticing for workers to get back on the job. Today, unemployed
Hertz Rental Car Company just filed for bankruptcy, so the assets must be sold to cover as much of the company’s debt as possible. That’s a tall order because the company carries $25 billion in debt, but it also has just over half a million cars in its fleet. Now they have to go. The
The federal government earmarked about $600 billion in the CARES Act relief package for $1,200 stimulus checks per person, as long as they made less than $99,000 per year. The money rolled out in April…and then found its way to Walmart and Target. Americans used the money to buy everything from video games to sewing
The federal government wanted to provide a financial boost to those who lost their jobs due to the economic shutdown, but it had to figure out the right amount. The math is straightforward. The average unemployment benefit across the nation is about $380 per week, and the average wage is about $980 per week, so
Americans are still trying to get their arms around the idea that almost one in five workers are out of a job. Most people think it’s temporary, that everyone will be back at work in short order. But that’s not the prevailing wisdom at the Federal Reserve. Chair Jay Powell said earlier this week that
