Size does matter

During the pandemic, plans to keep unemployment from rising quickly cost governments more than expected.

In Europe, furlough programs have taken care of a lot of the cost of wages for businesses. In the United States, the stimulus package has primarily been delivered to the general public in the form of mailed checks or credit lines to businesses.

In the US, most stimulus packages have been sent directly to people through checks or businesses through credit lines.

Since Europe's stimulus packages are worth 750 billion euros and the US's are worth around 2.5 trillion dollars, here is a comparison of the measures taken in these three countries based on the size of the US economy.