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The U.S. economy did indeed shrink in 2020
Jan 28, 2021

The U.S. economy did indeed shrink in 2020

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Plus, Apple says it will roll out changes to privacy notifications for apps tracking user behavior. And, how President Biden's executive order intended to boost the amount of American-made goods the federal government buys might affect small businesses.

Segments From this episode

U.S. GDP got a slight bump at the end of 2020, but it was the worst reading for the year since the end of WWII

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said we saw only a 4% increase in the last quarter of 2020. “And the slowdown we saw at the end of the year was driven by a slowdown in consumer spending,” Swonk said. “The loss at grocery stores, we know, was showing up in those long food lines as people went hungry and their savings from the CARES Act ran out.” Despite growth in the last two quarters for which we have data, Swonk said we’re still recession territory with the employment picture as bad or worse than the heights of the Great Recession.

Some businesses may struggle to follow Biden's "Buy American" rules

Jan 28, 2021
Certain products have been outsourced for so long that finding a domestic supplier could be tough, one business owner said.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Music from the episode

Sun Caribou

The team

Victoria Craig Host, BBC
Stephen Ryan Senior Producer, BBC
Jonathan Frewin Producer, BBC
Daniel Shin Producer
Jay Siebold Technical Director
Meredith Garretson Morbey Senior Producer
Alex Schroeder Producer
Erika Soderstrom Producer
Rose Conlon Producer
Brian Allison Technical Director