Some of the biggest banks in the United States have remained optimistic about the economic outlook for the nation this earnings season, driven in part by healthy consumer spending. Bank of America, in its reported earnings on Wednesday, said its 67 million customers spent a record $3.8 trillion in 2021, which is a 24 percent increase from the pre-pandemic benchmark in 2019. That spending has also continued in the first month of this year, with payments up 11 percent as of Jan. 17 compared to the beginning of January 2021, Bank of America said. The bank’s CEO Brian Moynihan told CNBC on said Monday that part of the reason behind the increased spending was the government’s unprecedented stimulus package aimed at keeping families afloat during the pandemic and a re-opening of the economy after more than two years of various forms of pandemic-related lockdowns. “People got a lot of stimulus money and they’ve been spending it,” Moynihan …