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Opinion
Marcus Ashworth

Is This the Last Charge of the Stimulus Brigade?

The U.S. is closer to spending big on infrastructure. Beijing is pumping more credit into its economy. The IMF and the EU are doling out cash. What effect is all this money going to have?

QE to the right of them, QE to the left of them.

QE to the right of them, QE to the left of them.

Photographer: Heritage Images/Hulton Archive

Two likely events have just complicated the global economic outlook for Fed Chair Jerome Powell as he prepares for his speech on Friday at the Jackson Hole virtual central banking symposium.

First, the U.S. House of Representatives backed President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget resolution, moving it an important step toward passage. It includes $550 billion to spend on infrastructure. Secondly, the Peoples Bank of China just signaled it is going to pump credit into the world's second largest economy.