Washington Post: U.S. economy deteriorating faster than anticipated as 80 million Americans forced to stay at home
The U.S. economy is deteriorating more quickly than was expected just days ago, as extraordinary measures designed to curb the coronavirus keep 84 million Americans penned in their homes and cause the near-total shutdown of most businesses.
In a single 24-hour period, the governors of three of the largest states - California, New York and Illinois - ordered residents to stay home, except to buy food and medicine, while the governor of Pennsylvania ordered the closure of nonessential businesses. Across the globe, health officials are struggling to cope with the growing number of patients, with the World Health Organization noting that while it required three months to reach 100,000 cases, it took only 12 days to hit another 100,000.
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WNU Editor: I have just started thinking on what would be the impact on the U.S. economy from this pandemic, and what I am finding out makes me realize that we are all facing a disaster that is truly going to rock the U.S. and global economy. Case in point .... the impact of Covid-19 on U.S. union/municipal/and state pension funds after this market crash has now put these funds in a position where they will not be able meet their obligations and commitments. The prospect of millions of retired Americans having their pensions cut .... I can imagine the backlash. And as for everything else. The collapse of oil markets and OPEC. The destruction of global supply chains. Massive and unprecedented government deficits. A massive cut in global GDP. I can easily see us entering an era of double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, and the extinction of the American middle class as we know it. In the future, when historians look back on what happened in March of 2020. They will say it was the greatest financial disaster in world history. More global wealth was lost in that month than at any time in human history. Think about that.
