详情

原文传递 A Summer Of 'Animal Spirits' Could Lift Barges

题名：	A Summer Of 'Animal Spirits' Could Lift Barges
正文语种：	eng
摘要：	How happy are Americans to be seeing the gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions as vaccinations spread? Very happy, to judge by the participants in the just-concluded Inland Marine Expo. Speakers at the educational events began their remarks by noting how glad they were to see people in person. Even for those who had been seeing each other on Zoom meetings for months, the event felt like a reconnection. For many attendees, IMX was the first in-person event they have experienced since the pandemic restrictions began. The feelings of liberation and relief Americans are experiencing, and how those feelings could influence their behavior and spending this summer, may have significance for our industry. As Ken Eriksen, IHS Markit senior vice president, noted during his keynote talk at the opening of IMX, American consumers as a whole have a lot of accumulated spending power to unleash. Stimulus payments succeeded in keeping people afloat, even many of those who had lost jobs. Many families paid down their credit card debt. Savings rates skyrocketed. Farm incomes increased in 2020, thanks to government support. Since then, record high commodity prices, especially of corn and soybeans, have boosted farmers' incomes further and will influence downstream purchases of farm equipment, which bears on steel prices.
出版年：	2021
期刊名称：	The Waterways Jouranl
卷：	135
期：	9