September Is Here, But Normal Isn’t

Hey y'all, it's Reade. While hard to believe, September is just a few days away. Sadly, it's not shaping up to be the September that any of us—policymakers, economists, and normal people like you and me—were hoping for just a few months ago.

As my colleague Olivia Rockeman and I examine in the latest Bloomberg Businessweek, the month that was supposed to be the U.S. economy's big back-to-normal moment is instead plagued by a surge in Covid-19 infections stemming from the highly contagious delta variant. That's in turn delaying return-to-office plans, disrupting in-person school, and injecting uncertainty into the economic outlook. And even more complications are on the horizon—from the eviction moratorium the Supreme Court ended late Thursday to the unemployment benefit programs that are set to expire on Labor Day.

The impact of delta is beginning to show up in data points such as consumer sentiment and credit card spending, but ultimately we won't know the variant's full impact on the economy until we get a glimpse of official indicators over the next few weeks. And some of those numbers may not be pretty. Click here to read the story. —Reade Pickert