Covid-19 has upended economies across the globe. In the fourth season of Stephanomics, we’ll be taking a closer look at the fragile path to recovery and which nations are doing better than others.

This first podcast of the new season is brought to you by the letter K, or more precisely the K-shaped recovery which sees parts of the U.S. economy bouncing back while others still suffer. We start in Cleveland, where Bloomberg senior reporter Shawn Donnan tells us about two houses that illustrate how the pandemic is both reinforcing and widening America’s inequalities. 

Host Stephanie Flanders also talks with Director of the London School of Economics Minouche Shafik about the unequal economic impact of the pandemic, and what policymakers should be doing to help. Flanders also speaks with Bloomberg economy editor James Mayger in China, where after months of staying home, almost half a billion people are displaying confidence in the country’s rebound and finally taking a vacation.