If the Great Depression was bad, then this right now is the ‘Greater Depression’, as millions of jobs are being lost, people are getting poorer, work is becoming scarcer, and desperation is everywhere. According to a recent report from NPR, the US GDP has dropped by almost one-third in three months, making it the worst economic report ever in the history of the country.
The coronavirus pandemic triggered the sharpest economic contraction in modern American history, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter as restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 150,000 people in the U.S.
The economic shock in April, May and June was more than three times as sharp as the previous record — 10% in 1958 — and nearly four times the worst quarter during the Great Recession.
Horrific,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit. “We’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
Another 1.43 million people filed for state unemployment last week, an increase of 12,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was the second week in a row of increased unemployment filings and shows that the economic picture continues to remain grim.
GDP swings are typically reported at an annual rate — as if they were to continue for a full year — which can be misleading in a volatile period like this. The overall economy in the second quarter was 9.5% smaller than during the same period a year ago.
After a sharp drop in March and April, economic activity began to rebound in May and June, although that recovery remains halting and could be jeopardized by a new surge of infections. (source)
Trump still has the lead in the polls, but there is a reason why Trump is up against Biden, because it is going to be very difficult for Biden to get elected.
From the perspective of history, this will fall on Trump’s shoulders, as such things often do. It is true that he did not set up the situations for this to happen entirely on his own, but some things, such as the COVID-19 “stimulus checks”, he certainly did, and that has absolutely contributed a notable portion to the current chaos.
However, Trump or not, these economic numbers are what I have been constantly warning about.
You need to get yourself prepared NOW. I cannot say that enough, because given how I have been predicting based on our models that there is a strong chance that there will be a second round of this virus, it will not be anything new per se in essence, but it will be a continuation of the economic death spiral that the US is going through- job losses, layoffs, and the infamous “Christmas Slay Ride” that I have written about in that retail sales are going to plummet because people do not have spare monies to spend and since most retail income is generated in the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas, it will mean that a lot of stores and businesses will be forced to close.
The only good thing in this economically hellish situation is that because there is a lot that one can see coming into formation as we speak, there is still time to prepare for it. This means that while the troubles will not be able to be stopped, a lot of the serious heartaches can be decreased or avoided completely in some cases if people are willing to work together or make necessary sacrifices by way of working extra so to create a financial cushion which can help lessen the impact of economic blows caused through no fault of their own.
The hour is late, but there is still time to make things better than what they will be if nothing is done. But it will not last forever, and if this is the worse economic report ever, what is going to be said when the second wave hits with the same effects?