Spending Sustainability

In 2/20, pre-Covid-19, real per capita personal income was $45,453. It then bounced wildly due to repeated stimulus checks and other expansionary fiscal policies peaking at $57,597 in 3/21. It’s since declined every month but one and is now $46,018, $565 above the 2/20 level. The pre-Covid-19 trend would now have it at $47,000. Absent the substantial savings accumulated during Covid-19, the rate of personal spending growth would be anemic.