80 million Americans received their stimulus checks today. The goal is to have a big impact, but experts say you should think small.
"I don't think the stimulus is going to have that great of an impact on sustaining people and creating an impact in stimulating the economy," says UL Lafayette professor, Dr.Anthony Greco.
The stimulus checks are meant to help those who are unemployed or working fewer hours because of the pandemic, but if you are planning to help "stimulate the economy, Dr. Greco says small businesses need the most help.
"They are operating at a relatively thin margin of profit and if they can't get back to business as normal then they'll find themselves either closing down temporary or permanently," says Dr. Greco.
Dr. Greco believes it's too early to determine the overall economic impact of the pandemic.
"We only have about 3 weeks worth of experience with this thing right now. So you would have to have a longer time span to see what the impact would be," says Dr. Greco.
But the longer the economy stays closed, the bigger the impact, especially on main street.
"Small businesses are really the backbone of the economy but if we don't get the economy going by the middle of May I think we're going to be in real trouble so businesses may never reopen.
And then you're gonna have some long-term problems," says Dr. Greco.
