Understanding our current economic situation is critical to a personal evaluation of the effectiveness of the present administration in the run up to the election. Expressions such as a V- or K-shaped recovery may not provide clarity. For those of us with jobs we can do safely online or somewhat isolated from co-workers and for those of us with income from the stock market, an appreciation of the economic perils of our situation or increasing inequities may be difficult to appreciate.
I thought this article from the Washington Post did a great job of explaining several of these issues. It is a comparison of multiple recessions and an explanation of why this one is different. One graphic (I provide) as you may not have access to the article.
The four graphs compare job loss/gains for four recessions for the top and bottom 25% of income. The difference across recessions is dramatic and a function of our present challenge being caused by a deadly illness and the differential dangers of working in person versus distanced in some way and whether this difference is required to earn an income. When Biden describes a K-shaped recession, this difference is what he is describing. Those most negatively impacted are far more unlikely to have investments in the stock market explaining why pointing to the stock market as an indicator of the health of the economy is misleading.