On paper, our economy is in the gutter. Unemployment is at an all-time high, gross domestic product is contracting in accordance with the definition of recession, and most businesses that operates on foot traffic are closed. But the stock market is just 12% below its all-time high
On paper, our economy is in the gutter. Unemployment is at an all-time high, gross domestic product is contracting in accordance with the definition of recession, and most businesses that operates on foot traffic are closed. But the stock market is just 12% below its all-time high, Americans are projected to have greater total spending power than before quarantine, and it looks like the worst in unemployment is past.
Coronavirus has caused tremendous human suffering, tested our psychological mettle like few other events in our lifetime, and its legacy is unknown. The toll on life is heartbreaking, there is no disputing this. Yet as it stands right now, it is not a financial crisis. In terms of its economic impact, it’s actually more like a time machine. Worldwide containment that has forced businesses and consumers inside is expediting the digital infrastructure of our economy and concentrating the worst of the financial pain into industries and companies that were already struggling to survive.
The exception is the burden on local restaurants and small businesses, where suffering is a direct function of a government-enforced shutdown whose efficacy will be debated in the analysis over which virus policies were the most effective.
