Even with nearly a fifth of the labor force collecting unemployment benefits in July, Americans continued spending with relative gusto, driving retail sales back to pre-coronavirus levels as they shifted shopping online, brought their food home, and stocked up on new appliances. The downside: It was government money they spent, and that is now drying up even as a recent spate of unexpectedly upbeat economic data – including a larger-than-expected rise in payrolls last month and the first drop below 1 million in weekly new jobless claims since March – takes the pressure off Congress to renew the unemployment benefit supplement and business loan programs that ended last month. The dilemma is a stark one as the United States ends its first half-year of pandemic confusion. Is the economy on its way back as consumers and businesses learn to live with new health risks, or nearing a […]