Consumer Spending, Personal Income Growth Hinge on Combating Covid Delta Variant

The federal government today released July data on consumer spending (slower growth compared to June) and personal income growth (higher than expected). CEI Senior Fellow Ryan Young says reducing the Covid risk through vaccines and mask-wearing is what will help economic and income growth most – not ramped up spending by Washington:

“Consumer spending grew in July, but that growth was down two-thirds from June. Personal income growth was higher than expected, though that number was inflated by government assistance and other temporary policies. The most likely reason for the slower growth is the rise of COVID’s delta variant. The extent to which people feel safe doing normal activities has more to do with COVID than with anything else, including grand political plans to spend and stimulate.

“The recovery would be much easier if people were not so eager to make everything a political issue. Vaccines and masks are tools to fight the virus, and their effectiveness has nothing to do with red-team-blue-team culture wars. Politicians from both parties who are using the virus as an excuse to enact pre-existing policy agendas are hurting both the economy and the virus response.

“The best COVID response going forward, though it lacks the drama of a cable news shouting match or another headline with the word ‘trillion’ in it, would be a little prudence, both at home and in Washington.”