Pockets of Opportunity

IMAGINE YOU JUST WOKE UP FROM A SIX-MONTH coma. You’re informed that while you were out for the count a new virus spread across the world, claiming more than 500,000 lives and infecting nearly 12 million people worldwide. That, in turn, caused a nasty recession and the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. since the Great Depression. As if that weren’t enough, the killing of a Black man by a Minneapolis police officer, captured on video, sparked global protests in more than 60 countries, with demonstrators demanding racial justice and an end to police violence.

After a moment to collect your breath, you’re then told that the U.S. stock market has soared by about 20 percent over the past three months, retail sales surged a record 17.7 percent in May and employers added 4.8 million jobs to their payrolls in June as businesses nationwide began to reopen.

Pretty weird, right?

It’s a mixed-bag picture that Americans are waking up to daily.