Putting $6 Trillion “Stimulus” in Perspective

The most recent COVID relief bill was signed by President Biden yesterday. In one year’s time our government (two different administrations) has passed about $6 trillion worth of stimulus. We’re so used to “trillions” being thrown around I believe we’ve become numb to the mind-blowing magnitude of it all so I’ll try to put it in perspective:

  • $6,000,000,000,000 (that’s twelve zeros) divided by a population of 330 million is about $18,000 for every man, woman and child.
  • The average household is about 2.5 people (130 million households) so $6 trillion of stimulus is about $46,000 for every household on average. For our family of five, it’s about $90,000 (no, we didn’t get any of that).

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Painkillers Are Not Cures

Last week the Federal Reserve announced it would cut interest rates by 0.25%. This is major news because it signals the end of the “tightening” cycle and is the first rate cut since the Great Recession fallout. I wrote about the stock market’s action during rate cutting cycles a few weeks back here.

Here’s another great chart showing market performance during the last two rate cutting cycles.

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