Boom. That’s the best one-word summary of the state of the American economy. Later this month or sometime in June the economy will be back to the size it was before the pandemic hit. By year end, it will have made up the growth lost during 2020 and be as large as if China had never included the virus among its massive exports to the US. The economy that was believed headed into a deep, long-lasting recession a bit more than a year ago proves to have a foundation that could be shaken but not collapsed, at least not by a mere virus, although its resistance to attack from malign policies remains untested.
* Americans are snapping up cars and small trucks at a rate not seen since the autumn of 2017.
* Dealers shifted $11.6 billion worth of furniture from showrooms to homes in March, a record.
* More than one million new single-family homes were sold in March, more than in any month in about 15 years.
* Thanks to rising orders and export sales, the service sector is growing at its fastest rate in more than a decade.
* “CEOs across America’s industrial heartland are looking ebullient,” reports The Economist.
* Corporate earnings are growing faster than at any time since 2010.
Read the full article in _The Times_