The final appropriation under the so-called CARES Act would come to $2.7 trillion, nigh on three times the Obama stimulus of 2009. At its peak, in the week ending May 1, the federal government was pumping $200 billion per week into the economy. The rate of emergency spending did not fall below $50 billion per week until the third week of May.25 If the worst predictions of March and April did not come to pass, it was in part because of the scale of these interventions. The fiscal packages of 2020 were not stimulus in the conventional sense. Given the supply constraints due to the shutdown, they
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