Why the cost increase?

The GAO estimates that 40% of stimulus checks were used to pay down debt or saved in bank accounts.  Both of which stimulates nothing.

A friend in Boston was furloughed (company still paid health, life etc benefits) so technically not "laid off".  Friend still qualifies for Massachusetts unemployment at a staggering (to me) $800+ per week.
This same person also qualifies (just barely) for the $600 Fed program.
That's $1400+ a week or $5600 monthly or $72,000+ yearly!

Crazy times we live in.

Regards,
barts 

Be patient; Covid put quite a dent in spending and income but this wasn't a case of a housing market collapse or other situation where the recovery will be slow, but a lot of companies laid off their workers who had to find employment elsewhere and couldn't afford to wait around until their former employers decided to hire people back.  It might have been ruinous for them but if they could've kept their workers even semi-employed they'd still have them to increase their hours; now they're running into delays trying to ramp up again without their experienced workers.  Out of employment benefits come payments for the crappy insurance you buy through the ACA plus the extra medical bills that come from such crappy insurance.  Most people don't want to be unemployed and be handed money, knowing that your temporary benefits are going to run out and most likely NOT at a good time.  For those of you out there working, I (like myself) would rather have the security and benefits that a steady job provides as opposed to a short-term unemployment payment.  A side thought: the businesses that are bemoaning that they can't hire enough workers at $12 an hour ($24,960/year, take 1/3 taxes/ins out leaves $16,623, $319 a week clear) with no benefits shouldn't be surprised that they can't compete with the extra money the unemployed are getting right now (which states are trying to pull to fund other things).  What could trip up the recovery is, the unvaccinated are causing spikes all over the US and could hose things up again for a bit longer.  You want this to go away faster? Get vaccinated and hound everyone around you to do so - so tired of hearing people moan about masks and quarantining who are part of the problem, and give the same bogus reasons for not getting it day after day as the medical experts (no, not something you read on Facebook from "some guy who seems pretty smart") explain again and again that what you've heard/read isn't true.

oldhvymec

You did the classic "I don't like the guy so anything good he did must have been fake" bit. Sorry, but Clinton had 4 balanced budgets and even ran a surplus. It wasn't fake and he and Kasich deserve the credit. Just because Bush II came along and blew that out of the water by starting two wars doesn't mean Clinton doesn't deserve credit.

Supply and Demand with too many at home doing all those projects around the house that have been sitting there for ten or more years. 

I was talking with my hardwood supplier about this. I build furniture and very soon audio furniture. Madronetimbre.com. More about that later.

In any event, my hardwood supplier indicated plywood, MDF, oak and maple are going up in price.

Most of it is construction materials, however. Word to this large hardwood distributor is that the mills aren't working full shifts due to Covid concerns and a majority of employees in those industries refusing to get vaccinated. As such, the mills aren't letting the unvaxed in to get the rest of them sick. Most of these plants are located in the Southeast and aren't air conditioned. At the same time, they aren't all out in open space / air either. 

Hopefully by a year from now, this dilemma will be behind us. 

Three New Unemployment Programs Under the CARES ActProgramWhat it DoesFederal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC)Provides a federal benefit of $300 a week up to Sept. 6, 2021.*Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)Extends benefits to self-employed, freelancers, and independent contractors.

&

President Donald Trump on Sunday backed off his veto threat and signed the $900 billion stimulus bill—a move that should immediately benefit millions of unemployed Americans, even if its $600 checks have been roundly criticized as insufficient relief for the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

For starters, the package will bring back weekly enhanced federal unemployment benefits for the more than 19 million Americans still on unemployment benefit rolls. These enhanced benefits will pay out $300 per week, on top of state benefits, for up to 11 weeks. That’s down from the $600 weekly payment that the CARES Act sent jobless Americans through late July.

There was only 4 months of $600 UI. The rest was $300 until now.
Gotta love all the fuzzy math. But hey, how ’bout 85% of CARES money going to corporations who use it to buy back stock to increase their shares values so when they leave, they can cash out on the highest rate? They didn’t even qualify for the aid!

Others gave themselves bonuses and still laid off employees when they didn’t have to. And, a lot of those companies didn’t qualify for the money but "informed" there favorite politicians to simply give it to them. They were given a heads up as the bill was being written so as to be the first to apply and crowded out the small business owners that were to be the actual recipients of the aid.

Knowing how to bilk taxpayers is their specialty and they were the first to line up to the trough for the money. That money was supposed to help small companies retain employees by making the workplace safer and keeping companies afloat during shutdown when they couldn’t feasibly do it.

Why, oh why, do they always pick on the workers?

All the best,
Nonoise