1  Publisher and editor: Oesterreichische Nationalbank Otto-Wagner-Platz 3, 1010 Vienna, PO Box 61  As dutiful central bankers, we have reacted forcefully and in a swift manner to these dramatic developments: namely, by dropping the question mark from our conference title.
The exceptional support provided to US households is particularly evident when comparing the dynamics of GDP and disposable income (fig. 2): in 2020, just as the former recorded its sharpest collapse in real terms in the entire post-World War II period (-3.4 per cent), real disposable personal income grew by over 6 per cent, its largest rise since the mid-1980s.