May 25, 2021
2 min readminute reading time.
Well-being disparities likely to influence Fed policy
The Federal Reserve's latest report on economic well-being shows both the effectiveness of stimulus in offsetting last year's COVID-driven recession and the bifurcating effects of the pandemic itself. Three-quarters of the respondents indicated that they were "at least doing okay" financially last year, in line with the reading for 2019 and tied for the highest mark in the short history of the series. Along these same lines, a record 64 percent of respondents indicated that they could cover an unexpected $400 expense using cash, savings, or a credit card paid off at the next statement. This metric has risen in every year since the survey debuted in 2013, when only 50 percent of adults indicated that they could cover such an emergency.