All US job growth since the financial crisis gone:
“More than 22 million American have lost their jobs in the last four weeks as the coronavirus pandemic has swept across the US, according to government figures.
“The US labor department announced on Thursday that another 5.24 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week, making a total of 22.2 million since 14 March when nationwide stay-at-home orders led to an unprecedented wave of layoffs across the country…
“The torrent of layoffs has swept across the country, and every sector of the economy, leading to backlogs and anger at state unemployment offices as people have struggled to make claims. The delays are likely to trigger further spikes in the figures in coming weeks.
““It’s akin to the entire country being hit by a hurricane,” said Jason Reed, assistant chair of finance at the University of Notre Dame. “And we don’t know when the hurricane is leaving.””
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/16/us-unemployment-coronavirus-economic-toll-jobless
“…the question being asked is whether the US banking sector can readily absorb the shock that is about to hit the US economy from the economic shutdown, caused by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic… a pyroclastic flow of loan defaults in the coming weeks and months.
“There does appear to be some concern amongst some Fed members about the capacity of US banks to absorb what might be coming their way…”
https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-gb/news-and-analysis/us-banks-gearing-up-for-a-consumer-debt-tsunami
“As unemployment rises, lenders like JPMorgan JPM and Bank of America are setting aside record amounts to cover coming losses from Americans unable to pay their credit cards, auto loans and home mortgages.
“But according to data provided by New York City fintech Dv01, loan delinquencies are already a serious matter for online lenders.”
“It looks as if the US economy was heading for a recession in 2020, even without the breakdown connected with the pandemic…
“this conclusion raises a major question: If the economy was already heading for a recession, will that make a recession connected with the coronavirus even that much worse?”
“The global pandemic and accompanying economic crisis have knocked states and cities across the country back on their heels.
States are hemorrhaging money to stand up medical systems and field unemployment claims while watching their revenue plummet. People have been ordered to stay at home, meaning sales tax revenues are way down, and as layoffs take hold, revenue from income tax is falling as well.”
“Even before the arrival of the coronavirus outbreak, Los Angeles city leaders had been facing a budget crunch, in large part because of new pay raises and increased benefits for the city workforce.
“Now, the shutdowns triggered by a global health crisis have unleashed a new and potentially more dire financial threat, endangering the city’s ability to maintain existing public services.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-16/coronavirus-los-angeles-city-budget-problems
“Britain’s budget forecasters say the economy could be on track for an unprecedented 35% decline in the April-June period.
“Even if the lockdown eases and growth rebounds, annual output could still fall 13% in 2020, the biggest annual decline in over 300 years.”
“Moldovan Prime Minister Ion Chicu told a TV show on Wednesday that the country’s public finances were in dire straits owing to the pandemic, and the country desperately needed a new IMF loan to avoid catastrophe.
“Since March 17, budget revenues had been cut in half, Chicu said…”
https://balkaninsight.com/2020/04/16/moldova-seeks-imf-loan-to-avoid-financial-collapse/
“Middle East and North African economies have been hit by dual shocks during the past two months, notably the coronavirus pandemic and lower oil prices. For some, like Lebanon, it comes amid a financial crisis that was already underway.
“But as the global impact of the crises bites, so another financial shock is looming – a drop in remittances from overseas workers.
“And it is likely to hit the region’s most vulnerable economies, including Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon…”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coronavirus-egypt-lebanon-jordan-remittance-economy
“…after doling out nearly two-thirds of new lending in 2019, the private banks have been unable to escape the effects of India’s lockdown of its economy, which is expected to devastate many of their retail and corporate customers.
“If they now respond by curtailing new loans even to healthy borrowers, that will have serious consequences for the Indian economy and the pace at which it can emerge from the crisis.”
“China’s economy shrank for the first time since at least 1992 in the first quarter, as the coronavirus outbreak paralysed production and spending, raising pressure on authorities to do more to stop mounting job losses….
“Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 6.8% in January-March year-on-year…”
“Even before this dismal result, the International Monetary Fund predicted Asia would see zero growth this year.
“Even flatlining sounds optimistic when you consider the role China played nursing the region through the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 and the Great Recession a decade later.”
“…the likes of Turkey, Russia, Brazil have become new hotspots of the coronavirus with their new cases’ curve still on a steepening trend. Prolonged outbreaks would put further strains on the developing countries’ already vulnerable financial situation.
“As we type, Mexico was just downgraded by Fitch to BBB- and this is just the tip of the iceberg in our opinion.”
“Hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic
“…and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, the United Nations warned on Thursday…”
“Vulnerable parts of the developing world, particularly in Africa, are at risk of sliding into famine as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, while humanitarian relief efforts are being hindered by lockdowns and travel restrictions, according to the UN.
“Experts raised the spectre of unrest similar to that seen in 2007-08 when food price rises sparked riots around the world, destabilising fragile states and fuelling conflict in ways that are still being felt…”
“Across the country [UK] the food supply industry – which has developed and evolved to be part of a globalised, international world operating on a just-in-time supply basis – has begun to falter and fail.
“In some cases, we don’t have the ability to produce food. In other cases, we can produce it, but don’t have the ability to process and package it. It’s resulting in an industrial-scale food crisis.”
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/farming-crisis-coronavirus-industrial-food-waste
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