The European Union is meeting on Thursday to decide whether to reintroduce travel restrictions on U.S. visitors.
The U.S. Covid-19 new-case rate is significantly higher than European guidelines permit. It also doesn’t help that the U.S. hasn’t reciprocated in allowing European visitors stateside.
Even without restrictions, the recovery in American flight traffic has stalled. In the seven days ending Tuesday, traveler throughput was 73% of 2019 levels, according to official data, below the 85% level reached at the end of July. Americans also aren’t going to the office as much, according to data from Kastle Systems, an office-fob provider. No wonder the yield on the bonds of office provider WeWork has climbed of late, and the stock of its planned acquirer BowX Acquisition Corp. has sagged.
Perhaps, as strategists at JPMorgan believe, the Delta variant’s pressure on the U.S. economy will soon wane. But as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell often says, the central bank remains data dependent.
