“Wherever you live in America, you can see the misery of this economic collapse all around you, if you leave your lockdown to look; but the fabric of prosperity is fraying uniquely in every single city and town.
“That’s why, in early May, The New York Times Magazine asked seven writers and seven photographers to capture how the crisis looks and feels among the newly jobless in seven different communities.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/27/magazine/coronavirus-unemployment-joblessness.html
“Property owners who lease to Hertz received unwelcome news on May 19: Don’t expect rent from us for the next six months.
“In a letter reviewed by Business Insider, Hertz wrote that “it will be deferring all Base Rent payments for six months.””
“Around 56% of US parents have had to go into debt in these past few months in order to cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, a survey found…
“LendingTree canvassed more than 1,000 parents in the States with children and found that 56% of them had gone into debt due to coronavirus-related circumstances.”
“…writing in the Guardian, the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, said Britain was entering the “second phase” of the crisis and warned the risks are “undoubtedly on the downside for a longer and harder recovery”.
“His intervention comes as the economic fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak is laid bare in a new Guardian project that will track the repercussions of the pandemic.”
“The £75bn car finance sector [UK] has… been running on a precariously thin tread for quite some time – and coronavirus could be the catalyst for an almighty skid.
“After several years of decline, in April new car sales plunged 97pc – a low not seen since the Second World War.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/05/27/coronavirus-puts-75bn-car-finance-sector-tailspin/
“Britain’s financial services sector should be ready for a no-deal Brexit when a transition period with Brussels expires in December, a senior European Union official said on Wednesday.
“Britain left the EU in January, but firms still have unfettered access to the bloc until the end of the year.”
“Accepting food handouts for the first time has become reality for thousands in Spain where poverty has soared during the epidemic, echoing the 2008 crisis from which many have barely recovered…
“For many people, it is the first time they’ve had to seek help.”
“The Spanish government is set on Friday to use emergency powers to push through an anti-poverty programme it champions as a central part of its legacy and a model for other countries…
“Parliament will have four weeks to back the measure — which tops up incomes to a guaranteed level of between €461 and €1015 depending on individual households’ circumstances — or see it fall, which would mean withdrawing the scheme just after people have started benefiting from it.”
https://www.ft.com/content/0b6a5d25-e078-4dfc-b314-f659b566317e
“Italy has to spend the money provided by the European Union to tackle the economic crisis caused by coronavirus, but in the medium term it needs to reduce its high public debt, EU Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Thursday.”
“The eurozone economy will shrink by 8 to 12 per cent this year as the “sudden stop of activity” caused by coronavirus triggers a recession twice as deep as after the 2008 financial crisis, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde has warned.
https://www.ft.com/content/a01424e8-089d-4618-babe-72f88184ac57
“High debt and deficit levels will raise the risk of sovereign defaults, especially in Southern Europe, as high unemployment creates fertile ground for social unrest and political extremism across the currency area.”
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/will-covid-19-be-eurozone-s-undoing
“The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked food security fears across the world. In Turkey, it has underscored the crucial role that seasonal workers — impoverished people crisscrossing regions for manual jobs — play in the country’s food supply chain.”
“A perfect storm of difficulties has gripped Saudi Arabia.
“The king has responded by tripling value-added taxes, cutting subsidies, and imposing austerity measures — all of which hurt the poor disproportionately. The prospects for social unrest are high, especially when the curfews are lifted.”
“Some 122 million Indians were forced out of jobs last month alone, according to estimates from the CMIE.
“Daily wage workers and those employed by small businesses have taken the worst achievement. These include hawkers, roadside vendors, workers employed in the construction industry and many who eke out a living by pushing handcarts and rickshaws.”
https://newsd.in/worlds-biggest-lockdown-to-push-12-million-indians-into-extreme-poverty-reports/
“Hong Kong police arrested at least 360 people during day-long protests and skirmishes across the city, as residents railed against controversial legislation aimed at bringing the territory further under Beijing’s control.
“Police fired pepper-spray bullets into lunchtime crowds as people shouted slogans.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/hong-kong-trump-china-security-crackdown-protests#_=_
“South Korea’s central bank cut interest rates to a record low on Thursday as it warned the coronavirus pandemic would be worse for Asia’s fourth-largest economy than the 2008 global financial crisis…
“Governor Lee Ju-yeol said the bank is ready to ramp up government bond buying to soak up the massive public debt needed to cover the cost of new stimulus.”
“As we look towards next week’s GDP figures, the latest construction data released on Wednesday by the bureau of statistics shows that well before the coronavirus hit, Australia’s economy was in dire need of stimulus…
“The virus did not so much infect a healthy economy as it did knock out one already rather sick.”
“The U.N. World Food Program is warning that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy. New projections released late Wednesday estimate a startling increase…”
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/virus-push-14-million-hunger-latin-america-70919402
“The South African Reserve Bank says SA’s financial system is under stress and headed for “extraordinary shocks”, as people are expected to struggle servicing their debt or keep their insurance policies in place, while those who still have money to save and invest are already opting for short-term deposits.”
“More than one in six young people have stopped working since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said, calling on governments to take urgent action to prevent the risk of a “lockdown generation”.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/6-young-people-work-due-coronavirus-crisis-200527161417801.html
“When it comes to global debt crises Lee Buchheit thought he’d seen it all – until now. The international sovereign debt advisor has acted as a lawyer for countries on the brink of bankruptcy for decades. As 100 countries ask for emergency assistance from the IMF due to the effects of COVID-19 on their economies, Buchheit tells Stephen Cole he struggles to compare the current economic climate to one previously because the situation is so unprecedented.
“”This could be a systemic sovereign debt crisis of the kind we haven’t seen since the 1980s and perhaps it’ll even dwarf that one.””
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