There’s hope that Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan could provide a shot in the arm for the economy. Dr. Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting and Dr. Hank Fishkind, president of Fishkind Litigation Services, join Intersection to unpack the details of how this could impact Central Florida.
Fishkind says the pandemic hit Central Florida hard.
"The pandemic recession has been particularly hard on us, given the structure of our economy, we have an elevated unemployment rate, and the process of recovery is slow."
Fishkind says even though getting people vaccinated against COVID-19 is a key part of the recovery, the pandemic will have a lasting impact on the economy.
"For example, we now know that many people can work from home, many people are going to continue to do that, that really affects the amount of office space, it affects the demand for lunch and meals downtown. We're probably not going to see a recovery in business travel anytime soon. Maybe some of that is gone forever. So those are significant long term changes."
Snaith says the downturn in travel and hospitality particularly will be temporary.
"I think that again, this is not going to be fixed overnight. I do think that there is pent up demand, I think people have been, you know, pent up literally, in their homes for most of the pandemic. And I think the desire to kind of try to get back to something close to close to normal will continue to build."
As for Biden's stimulus plan, "hopefully it'll be more targeted when it comes to these payments to the households that need them the most," says Snaith.
"The segment of our economy that has borne the brunt of these lockdowns and pandemic recession, have been the lower income earners."