“The coronavirus pandemic led to the furthest-reaching economic collapse globally since 1870, the World Bank said Monday. In the organization’s latest Global Economic Prospects Report, it said the scale of the economic contraction will be worse than any recession in 150 years due to the number of countries affected, according to AFP.
“”This is a deeply sobering outlook, with the crisis likely to leave long-lasting scars and pose major global challenges,” Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, World Bank Group vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions, said.”
“The reality is that the major economies of the world were already moving into a severe crisis by the end of last year, far worse than the Great Recession of 2008/09; moving in a direction similar to (or worse than) that of the 1930s.
“The crash seemed inevitable, Covid or no Covid. The lockdown has, of course, aggravated the already bad situation 10-fold.”
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article9469.html
NB The US did not lock down until the end of March.
“The U.S. is officially in a recession [as of February], bringing an end to a historic 128 months of economic growth, after the coronavirus pandemic swept the country and shut down the economy… The NBER noted that the quarterly peak was the final quarter of 2019.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/it-s-official-u-s-entered-recession-february-n1227631
“On the same day that the Nasdaq marked a new bull market, the U.S. economy was officially declared to be in a recession.
“The two milestones on Monday illustrate how an 11-week surge in stocks has occurred despite widespread economic devastation fueled by the coronavirus pandemic. “
May jobs data for the US was bogus: On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the US labour department, released its latest report on the jobs market, showing unemployment dropping from 14.7 per cent in April to 13.3 per cent in May, an unexpected improvement.
“But the data came with a caveat: the agency acknowledged that some furloughed employees had been labelled as working but absent, when they should have been classified as temporarily laid off.”
https://www.ft.com/content/307a779e-a581-4158-9fcf-1f5957720e88
“As millions of Americans return to work amid the worst economic crisis in a generation, they’re unexpectedly discovering their old positions are far more burdensome than they used to be.
“Their hours have been cut, their pay has been slashed and their responsibilities are now magnitudes greater. And their job security — despite President Trump’s recent proclamations about an economy on the mend — remains anything but guaranteed.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/06/workers-pay-cuts-coronavirus/
“Already stressed by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. living standards are about to be squeezed as never before.
“At the same time, the world is having serious doubts about the once widely accepted presumption of American exceptionalism.
“Currencies set the equilibrium between these two forces — domestic economic fundamentals and foreign perceptions of a nation’s strength or weakness. The balance is shifting, and a crash in the dollar could well be in the offing.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crash-dollar-coming-210024166.html
“Round Two For Stimulus Checks Hangs In Balance.
“Proposals continue to be floated on what form the next round of stimulus will take in response to COVID-19. Whether stimulus checks are included is key. “
“One of the lasting images of the coronavirus pandemic will be that of thousands of cars lined up bumper to bumper in front of food banks, a reminder of how many people in the U.S. have lost their incomes and the ability to feed themselves and their families over the past three months.
“Food pantries and other nonprofit organizations have struggled to respond to record demand .”
“The food crisis [in Scotland] which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus lockdown is far from over, a new study has warned.
“The food insecurity crisis sparked by Covid-19 is set to enter a new phase that will require fresh action from the Scottish Government to alleviate, according to a report published this week by the Poverty and Inequality Commission.”
http://thirdforcenews.org.uk/tfn-news/food-crisis-is-far-from-over-study-warns
“Scottish private-sector economic output continued to plummet in May amid the coronavirus crisis and associated lockdown restrictions, although at a slower rate than in April, and companies shed staff at a rapid pace, a key survey shows.”
“BP has announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs, representing about 15% of the oil group’s 70,000 staff, by the end of the year…
“The London-headquartered group has not said how many jobs will be lost in the UK, but it is thought the figure could be close to 2,000. About 15,000 people work for BP in the UK.”
“Germany’s industrial production fell so sharply in April, at the height of the coronavirus lockdown in the country, that one economist has called it “the worst month ever” for the German economy, a key growth driver for the euro zone…
“The data from Germany comes despite the country having a far less severe epidemic than its western European peers.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/08/german-economy-during-coronavirus-lockdown-saw-worst-month-ever.html
“The Bank of France report shows that even with robust growth in the next two years, unemployment will continue rising to reach a record high close to 12% in the first half of 2021 and decline to only 9.7% by the end of 2022.
“The economy, which will shrink more than 10% this year, will recover to the level reached last year around mid-2022.”
“Deflation is back on the minds of European Central Bank officials, presaging battles for President Christine Lagarde over whether the euro zone needs yet more monetary stimulus.
“In sparking the biggest peacetime recession in Europe since the 1930s, the coronavirus pandemic has reawakened the image of a Great Depression-like slump in prices and wages that sucks the life out of the economy.”
“The number of listed Japanese firms that tapped banks for funds to cope with the coronavirus pandemic reached 171 as of Monday, with the total amount procured hitting 9.68 trillion yen ($89.59 billion), private think tank Tokyo Shoko Research said.
“Of the total, Toyota Motor Corp tapped the biggest amount at 1.25 trillion yen, Tokyo Shoko Research said in a report released on Tuesday.”
“A new global crisis is looming in East Asia… Beijing has intensified its appeal to nationalism. The propaganda goal is to rally the people against external threats and deflect anger about Covid-19 outwards, to the world beyond China.
“Beijing’s external and internal policies are increasingly bold and aggressive. A new national security law is to be imposed on Hong Kong…”
https://app.ft.com/cms/s/2a6555e2-a961-11ea-a766-7c300513fe47.html
“Hong Kong is preparing for a series of small-scale protests to mark the first anniversary of the anti-extradition bill movement.
“But a resumption of city-wide unrest is unlikely as activists reel from mass arrests, bans on public gatherings and a looming national security law. “
“Emerging economies take hit from coronavirus: Today’s World Bank report highlights the economic toll on emerging and developing countries as the coronavirus crisis tips millions of people into extreme poverty and leaves “lasting scars” in its wake.
“While richer countries are mostly past the worst stages and are planning the gradual reopening of their economies, many of their poorer counterparts are now at the centre of the pandemic. The economic hit is likely to be most severe “where there is heavy reliance on global trade, tourism, commodity exports and external financing”…”
https://www.ft.com/content/be9c5a5e-1280-4281-8b28-04717d2c7e66
“Many countries with strong authoritarian governments are more susceptible to economic shocks, much more likely to experience a collapse in regime when a strong downturn occurs and more at risk of descending into violent conflict than are more conventional democracies.
“This research suggests that governments (and financial markets) should be worried about a rise in violence as the pandemic takes hold in these economies, given that those very governments have often failed to deal effectively with systemic inequalities.”
“…food insecurity has been on the rise in Nigeria. Just a few months ago, the Food and Agriculture Organisation predicted that 7 million Nigerians will experience food shortage between June and August…
“Yet, recent happenings showed that this food shortage will be worse, as the cost of production set to significantly increase within the next 6 -9 months and every Nigerian will be affected.”
“Sudan is facing growing demands to end the restrictions from a population mired in poverty and facing annual inflation of nearly 100 percent – as well as fielding complaints that promised aid for poorer Sudanese has failed to materialise.
“We demand that the lockdown is lifted immediately so that we can … get on with our lives, because hunger is worse than corona,” said Othman, who is a daily wage earner.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/hunger-worse-corona-sudanese-demand-lockdown-200608144103592.html
“For a container shipping industry whose fortunes depend on ever greater globalisation, the coronavirus pandemic appears a particularly formidable foe.
“Evidence of the disruption to world trade is stark: sailors are stranded on ships thanks to Covid-19 travel restrictions, while containers packed with everything from televisions to clothes have arrived in western ports from Asia just as consumer demand in Europe and the US evaporates.
“There are echoes of the 2008-09 financial crisis…”
http://app.ft.com/cms/s/e9e69b0b-ae95-4f57-9a41-ea4f9756edd5.html
“In all the hullabaloo of OPEC+ prolonging the deepest production cuts in history, it’s easy to overlook ominous signals for oil prices — and the wider economy — that are emanating from the diesel market.
““The world’s awash with diesel,” said Alan Gelder, vice president for refining, chemicals and oil markets at consulting firm Wood Mackenzie Ltd. “There’s just loads of it everywhere.” “
“Faced with a crisis unlike any other in memory, central bankers have embarked on new efforts to keep credit flowing and to set the stage for an economic turnaround.
“Because they went into the crisis with limited ammunition to stoke growth, experimentation may prove even more crucial in the months and years ahead…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/business/economy/central-banks-coronavirus-economies.html
“Fidelity chief warns of global corporate solvency crisis:
“Fidelity International boss Anne Richards has warned that the asset management industry will struggle to provide enough capital to fix the solvency problems public businesses face as economies emerge from lockdown.”
https://www.ft.com/content/d6fd7d11-c06e-4e88-82a7-87465c84a120
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