What America's Startup Boom Could Mean For The Economy
The historic surge of new businesses seen in 2020 has continued through the first half of 2021. Is it merely a pendulum swing back to a normal economy, or a rocket ship to a better economy?
Back in November, the Planet Money newsletter reported that — despite a deadly pandemic and an ugly recession — America was seeing a boom in the creation of new startups. We spoke with University of Maryland economist John Haltiwanger, one of the leading scholars of business formation. Now Haltiwanger has a new study out, and the trend is clear: "The surge continues," Haltiwanger says. "We're now convinced this wasn't just a blip."
Like so many other areas of the economy, applications for new businesses pulled back in the first half of 2020 but then snapped forward again like a slingshot. Not only was 2020 the best year
