Article 1

https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/us-economy-grew-faster-expected-2021-pandemic-transformed-its

Article 2

https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/us-wages-grew-fastest-pace-decades-2021-prices-grew-even-moreLinks to an external site.

1. Based on the author's estimates, how much did the pandemic lower the overall capital stock in the U.S. economy? Article 1
2. What are the two factors that contributed to the labor force becoming smaller from the pandemic? Article 1
3. How much did domestic demand rise in 4Q2021? Article 1
4. Why do you think final demand has been higher than GDP? Article 1 (Hint: think about the components of GDP)
5. How much are we above pre-pandemic trend in terms of domestic demand? (Article 1)
6. How do consumption, residential investment, business investment, and government spending compare to pre-pandemic trend? (Article 1)
7. How has the composition of consumption changed since Covid and what do you think contributed to this change? (Article 1)
8. What is the best/worst performing category of consumption relative to trend? (Article 1)
9. What happened to net exports and inventories? Why do you think this happened? (Article 1)
10. Has the pandemic helped or hurt the economy's potential in the U.S.? Why?
11. How much are wages and salaries above trend? (Article 2)
12. From September to December, how much did nominal wages increase by? (Article 2)
13. What are the indicators that authors use to illustrate the trajectory of the slack in the labor market? (Article 2)
14. How much has overall inflation been growing during the three months since September? (Article 2)
15. What factors did the authors cite in explaining the rise in overall inflation? (Article 2)
16. How much are real wages and salaries down by relative to trend in December 2021? Why are real wages down?
17. What are the best and worst performing sectors in terms of real wages?
18. What do you think matters more to the consumption of goods: real wages or nominal wages? Why? (Article 2)
19. Which income cohort is doing the best in terms of real wages? (Article 2)
20. Why did nominal wages and salaries rise more post Covid than post the Great Financial Crisis? (Article 2)