“The world is hurtling toward an unprecedented hunger crisis.
“As many as 132 million more people than previously projected could go hungry in 2020, and this year’s gain may be more than triple any increase this century. The pandemic is upending food supply chains, crippling economies and eroding consumer purchasing power…
“In Queens, New York, the lines snaking around a food bank are eight hours long as people wait for a box of supplies that might last them a week, while farmers in California are plowing over lettuce and fruit is rotting on trees in Washington.
“In Uganda, bananas and tomatoes are piling up in open-air markets, and even nearly give-away prices aren’t low enough for out-of-work buyers. Supplies of rice and meat were left floating at ports earlier this year after logistical jams in the Philippines, China and Nigeria. And in South America, Venezuela is teetering on the brink of famine.
“”“We’ll see the scars of this crisis for generations,” said Mariana Chilton, director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities at Drexel University. “In 2120, we’ll still be talking about this crisis.”” [I doubt it; humans at that point, if indeed there are any, will have worse crises than this to reflect upon].
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/hunger-threatening-kill-more-people-040109775.html
“Congress is at a “tragic impasse” for the next stimulus package, says Pelosi, a California Democrat.
“Pelosi told Republicans that there won’t be further discussions until Republicans agree to a $2.2 trillion stimulus package, which is nearly double the size of the original Republican stimulus proposal known as the Heals Act.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/08/29/stimulus-package-update/#1068d87d77e9
“People caught rioting during large protests could be stripped of their federal unemployment benefits and be forced to pay an order of restitution to police under a new bill proposed by a Republican Congressman.”
““I think we are on the precipice of a major wave of insolvency [for US households],” said Bruce McClary, vice president of communications for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling…
“There is going to be a bankruptcy bubble,” he said. “We need to be prepared for what will happen.”
“Police urged demonstrators to disperse under social distancing laws on Saturday after several thousand anti-lockdown, anti-mask and anti-vaccine protesters gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square.
“The Unite For Freedom rally saw a vast mask-free crowd carrying signs and placards including “World Hoax Organisation” and “Masks are muzzles”.”
“Far-right extremists tried to storm the German parliament building on Saturday following a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions, but were intercepted by police and forcibly removed.
“The incident occurred after a daylong demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to the wearing of masks and other government measures…”
“More than 300 rioters threw stones at police and burned tyres in the southern Swedish city of Malmo on Friday night after a video circulated of followers of the far-right Danish politician Rasmus Paludan burning a copy of the Qur’an near one of the city’s mosques…
“Throughout the night, police held their position at the crossroads, …pushing the rioters back with a series of charges.”
“If 2008 was a heart attack for the world’s banks, 2020 is showing the sector to be both morbidly obese and dangerously addicted to prescription drugs… profitability has been permanently impaired by monetary policy…
“Investors’ second worry is that distributable returns to shareholders, via dividends or share buybacks, will be doubly constrained — not only by structurally lower profitability, but also by regulatory blocks on payouts.”
https://www.ft.com/content/266ee6ff-ade1-4934-b97e-c8e8c82b365d
“The plan by G20 countries to suspend debt service for African countries until the end of the year may not go far enough or may come too late as coronavirus ravages economies on the continent.”
“More than half of Lebanon’s population risk facing a food crisis in the aftermath of a Beirut port blast that compounded the country’s many woes, a UN agency has warned…
“Lebanon was mired in an economic collapse even before the August 4 blast at Beirut’s port, which killed 188 people, wounded thousands and destroyed swathes of the capital.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/lebanon-face-food-shortages-200830104021486.html
“Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem in a continuation of months-long weekend rallies…
“…demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a corruption trial and accusations of mishandling the coronavirus crisis.”
“Afghan children turn to opium fields for quick cash: Taliban, coronavirus, crippling economy, floods, rising unemplyment and limited resources: Afghanistan has been one of the worst-hit countries this year.
“As the pandemic and the floods hit the country, locals lost their paid and season jobs… Sadly, the next best solution for majority locals was heading towards the poppy fields.”
“This could yet be India’s worst economic crisis.
“GDP for the past quarter is expected to mark a low point for an economy that could yet see its sharpest annual setback since 1947.”
“China’s biggest banks suffered their worst profit decline in more than a decade as a cascade of loans to businesses across China are going bad…
“China’s $45 trillion banking system has been put on the front-line of helping alleviate the worst economic slump in 40 years, triggered by a large scale shutdown due to the virus outbreak. Authorities have required lenders to forgo 1.5 trillion yuan ($218 billion) in profit by providing cheap funding, deferring payments and increasing lending to small businesses struggling with the pandemic.”
https://www.bloombergquint.com/china/china-construction-bank-sees-profit-drop-11-on-bad-loan-surge
“Unemployment rises across Latin America as COVID-19 continues to hammer economies… Latin America is at risk of losing up to 45 million jobs because of the pandemic…”
“Global corporations have announced more than 200,000 job cuts or buyouts in recent weeks, a worrying sign that more losses will come as furloughs implemented early in the pandemic turn into permanent layoffs…
“The cuts cast a shadow on the fragile rebound in the global economy…”
“Any signs of a global rebound in economic data this month are coming with a constant caveat — that the coronavirus crisis is far from over…
“That backdrop was a recurring theme in charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week.”
“…six months after the coronavirus outbreak began to accelerate rapidly outside China, it’s increasingly clear that countries will not bounce back in tandem.
“The impact of the virus, public health policy and stimulus measures are creating divergent paths forward, with ramifications that could last years.”
https://theunionjournal.com/global-recession-which-big-economies-have-fared-the-worst/
““The COVID-19 pandemic will hurt long-term economic growth,” revealed Nariman Behravesh and Sara Johnson, global economists at IHS Markit.
““Crises not only plunge economies into recession in the near-to-medium term, but they can also inflict long-term damage.””
“The Fed’s two per cent inflation target has become a long-term average rather than a ceiling.
“In essence, it says that even more debt and leverage is encouraged and that the Fed will provide a rising safety net under risk assets, in the process exacerbating the wealth inequality that has already produced significant social stresses in the US and elsewhere.”
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