US: a recession with no effect on the “middle” class

If we did not know that a global pandemic had caused the most severe peacetime shock ever seen, it is not something we would be able to guess from looking at the data on spending on goods and home purchases by US households. One-off fiscal support helped them to weather the shock. But this support has ended and there are no signs of a future slump in household spending (at least not yet). The distribution of the shock also had its importance. Job losses mainly affected low-income...