Closing bars and restaurants and pandemic 'stimulus' fueled excessive drinking at home. We can add a new, fatal wave of alcoholism to the unintended consequences of pandemic policy in the United States. Covid policies reduced the financial cost of excessive drinking and flooded families with extra cash.

Although employment fell during the pandemic and remained low, personal incomes surged during the first year and a half, far surpassing the historical records that were set during economic expansions. This economic oddity is largely due to unemployment benefits and three rounds of stimulus checks, which averaged about $30 per day per household above pre-pandemic levels. Although not reflected in the personal-income accounting, the rent-moratorium policy



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Casey B. Mulligan is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago's Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, and served as the chief economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in 2018–19. He is also the author of You're Hired! Untold Successes and Failures of a Populist President, which details conflicts between President Trump and special interests. @caseybmulligan