America's $1.9trn supercharged economic recovery

The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 4.1% in the final quarter of 2020, and was forecast to regain pre-pandemic levels by the third quarter of this year even without Joe Biden's $1.9trn stimulus package.

Joe Biden
So much for “sleepy Joe”
(Image credit: © Alex Wong/Getty Images)

US president Joe Biden is delivering radical change to America, says Irwin Stelzer in The Sunday Times. Once taunted as “sleepy Joe”, Biden has proved vigorous, pushing through a $1.9trn Covid-19 relief bill and preparing an even bigger infrastructure plan.

“Never has such a massive policy come at a time that is more inconsistent with economic reason”, says Robert O’Quinn in National Review’s Capital Matters. The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 4.1% in the final quarter of 2020. Even without the stimulus it was forecast to regain pre-pandemic levels by the third quarter of this year.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.