My short answer to this question is “no.”
The US government’s response to the pandemic—to shut down the economy—caused severe hardship to those who lost employment, did little to slow the spread of COVID, and caused severe supply-chain shortages when economic activity resumed, exacerbating inflation.
To make matters worse, the government passed the American Recovery Act that injected $1.7 trillion into the economy to boost demand at a time when the economy was already recovering so fast it was bursting at the seams. The Federal Reserve could have contained the problem but instead multiplied it by printing $3 trillion worth of dollars through Quantitative Easing (the purchase of Treasury bonds) which injected that cash into the economy.
The combination of government deficit spending and Fed quantitative easing gave us the inflation we are suffering from today which has not only made life more difficult for the average American but has destroyed an estimated $12 trillion worth of value from American stock and bond markets, reducing the investments needed to boost supply and crushing the IRA and 401K retirement plans of millions of Americans.
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