There is quite a lot to break down in the US household data for March. Firstly, incomes surged 21.1% month-on-month on the back of the latest $1,400 stimulus payment made to tens of millions of Americans. There were also small, but important increases to household incomes from the extended and uprated unemployment benefits, but so too from wages and salaries. As the chart below shows, household incomes are, on an annualized basis, $5tn higher than they were before the pandemic hit. An astonishing figure that helps to explain why the US economy has performed so well relative to Europe. The European governments took ... (full story)