America’s economic recovery no longer looks so strong

Editor’s note: Some of our covid-19 coverage is free for readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. For more stories and our pandemic tracker, see our hub

IN THE SUMMER and autumn America’s economy roared back. After peaking at nearly 15% of the labour force, unemployment fell like a stone, while in the third quarter GDP bounced from its lockdown-induced slump. The recovery of the world’s largest economy seemed oddly impervious to a second and then a third wave of coronavirus infections, even as economic activity in other parts of the world took a hit.

Yet there are growing concerns that the run of surprisingly good economic news is over, at least until a vaccine becomes widely available. In congressional testimony on December 1st Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said the recovery was slowing, while the decision on the same day by a bipartisan group of senators to release a proposal for a stimulus package reflects the same fears. The jobs report for November, which was to be released shortly after The Economist went to press, will probably be a downbeat one by recent standards—and whatever it shows, it is...