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dalton99a

(81,073 posts)
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 09:35 AM Apr 2020

Worst Economy in a Decade. What's Next? 'Worst in Our Lifetime.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/business/economy/gdp-economy-coronavirus.html

Worst Economy in a Decade. What’s Next? ‘Worst in Our Lifetime.’
U.S. gross domestic product declined in the first quarter, dragged down by the pandemic’s grip in March. Don’t even ask about this quarter.
By Ben Casselman
April 29, 2020



The coronavirus pandemic officially snapped the United States’ economic growth streak in the first three months of the year.

The question now is how deep the damage will get — and how long the country will take to recover.

U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy, fell at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is the first decline since 2014, and the worst quarterly contraction since 2008, when the country was in a deep recession.

There is much worse to come. Widespread layoffs and business closings didn’t hit until late March in most of the country. Economists expect figures from the current quarter, which will capture the shutdown’s impact more fully, to show that G.D.P. contracted at an annual rate of 30 percent or more, a scale not seen since the Great Depression.

“They’re going to be the worst in our lifetime,” Dan North, chief economist for the credit insurance company Euler Hermes North America, said of the second-quarter figures. “They’re going to be the worst in the post-World War II era.”
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Captain Zero

(6,714 posts)
1. Worst in the last 100 years if we get it done by 1929
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 09:37 AM
Apr 2020

Which would also make it worst in United States history. Thanks, Republicans.

empedocles

(15,751 posts)
2. If we have a 2nd wave down, [which may be forming now, DJIA down another 9,000 or so, from here],
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 09:41 AM
Apr 2020

it will be the worst of our lifetime.

If there is a 3rd wave down . . . it will be very, very bad.

bluestarone

(16,722 posts)
5. The stock market SHOULD be down 9,000 NOW!
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 09:49 AM
Apr 2020

I agree with your numbers BUT right now totally FALSE market! Don't understand WHY it's where it is? I see the market going UP when i KNOW it should be DIVING DOWN! UNEXPLAINABLE to me!

empedocles

(15,751 posts)
6. Markets are said to move to fool the maximum number of participants. Look at the
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 09:54 AM
Apr 2020

'gold rally', promoted in fox ads so much. Since gold reliably goes down in a deflationary economy - those sheep are moving into the shearing rotation.

CrispyQ

(36,231 posts)
3. They stupidly think just because they open business, customers will automatically flock there.
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 09:44 AM
Apr 2020

WTF? I know some will, but the majority of us will wait and see what happens before we risk our life or well-being to go shopping or go out to dinner.

OrlandoDem2

(2,064 posts)
7. For the 2nd quarter, April is already shot. May won't be much better.
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 09:55 AM
Apr 2020

Anyone with sense will stay out of restaurants, bars, gyms, hotel, planes, theme parks, etc until there is actual evidence that the virus is under control for now.

That means the month of May is shot.

Trump is counting on quarter 3. He said so. That’s July to September. His entire re-election is based on the economy in those 3 months.

CrispyQ

(36,231 posts)
8. People are not going to want to stay in during the summer months.
Wed Apr 29, 2020, 10:01 AM
Apr 2020

Our trails are already so busy it's almost impossible to maintain social distancing. I know this because I read it on one of the social media sites, not because I'm part of the problem. Nice weather is just starting. Wait until it's in full swing. I think we'll be on our third or fourth wave by Q3.

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