Hi, I'm Dan Premack, and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story.

Today is Friday, June 25th.

Odds for an infrastructure deal are up, odds of tax hikes for the rich are down, and we're

focused on America's falling birth rate.

Early last year, lots of us were talking about how America could find itself with a post-pandemic

baby boom. And that feeling seemed to be confirmed as the pandemic progressed when we read

tons of media coverage about new parents stuck at home. But it might have been a media mirage

because we were actually in the midst of a baby bust,

not a boom.

Last month, the CDC reported there were 4% fewer U.S. births in 2020 than in 2019 and the lowest number of annual births since 1979.

This marked an acceleration of a year's long trend because the U.S. birth rate has been going

down for a while, just not so suddenly.

Why it matters may depend on who you ask.

Conventional wisdom has generally been that it's important for generations to replenish themselves so that elders can be both provided for and cared for.

But there's also a more modern school of thought, that the real issue isn't how many babies are

born so much as that we've set up a system of social supports that relies upon that number.

Plus, plenty of environmentalists would argue that fewer new humans is better for the planet.

Either way, the CDC's findings have gotten plenty of media attention, including again this week,

as we all wonder how the pandemic might

have permanently changed society. So today we want to go inside the numbers and what they tell us,

with the CDC's Brady Hamilton, who co-authored its birth rate report. But first, I want to ask

my colleague Hope King, who's reporting on this issue, how our economy and our birth rate are

...