US economy suffers worst decline as GDP contracts by 32.9% in the second quarter

[figmentofmyass]

WOW.  32.9% is no joke, and that's scary to me.

that's the annualized rate. the quarter over quarter drop was a slightly less scary 9.5%.

What I'm hoping is that these numbers temporarily reflect the consequence of the COVID-19 shutdown and that the contraction eases in the upcoming quarters as people start getting back to work.  I also do think that's going to be the case, because I'm seeing my local stores and restaurants reopening--the odd thing is that I'm not seeing a lot of people around in the stores and such.  I'm assuming that might be because people are getting stuff delivered from Amazon and the like.

where i live, all the bars are closed again, and no more dining in at restaurants. a couple local businesses have closed for good.

july unemployment numbers get published later today. i'm eager to see whether the june recovery was a fluke or not. my feeling is it's gonna be a long and painfully slow recovery to get back to pre-pandemic employment levels.

the expansion of amazon and other e-commerce and delivery companies also has major implications for the shape of the economy. going forward, we should see less full-time workers with benefits and more gig workers and part-time workers.

[el kaka22]

I still can't believe people are thinking that just because stock markets soared and the likes of JP Morgan and Chase and so forth made profit the economy is back on track. We are talking about 33% drop in GDP, do you know how bad that is? Let me put it in this perspective, the GDP fall in the great depression of 1929 where people had trouble finding food to eat was around 15% and the 2008 drop in GDP was a bit over 1%, we are talking about 33% right now, it is record breaking and there has never been anything similar to this in US history before.

Yet somehow people are acting like everything will be alright when the government is printing trillions of dollars to stop the bleeding and paying citizens money for doing nothing just so the economy could stand on its feet once again. Things are going awful!

[stompix]

We are talking about 33% drop in GDP, do you know how bad that is? Let me put it in this perspective, the GDP fall in the great depression of 1929 where people had trouble finding food to eat was around 15% and the 2008 drop in GDP was a bit over 1%, we are talking about 33% right now, it is record breaking and there has never been anything similar to this in US history before.

Because as people have said before it's not really 33% but more like 10% and because this is not the same as the previous crises in history, this is not a shutdown of the economy because businesses go bankrupt but self-inflicted with forced closures.

Trouble finding food?
With people habits changing we have excess productions in some areas and excess food:
https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-crisis-belgians-called-upon-to-eat-more-fries/av-53310312
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-05-21/covid-19-poses-an-unprecedented-crisis-for-potato-farmers

People are staying at home, buying and cooking for themselves, since the easy option fo going out is out of the picture they are wasting and throwing out far less food and so a lot remains in the shops and deposits, ironically ...turning nevertheless to waste.
The difference is that no longer people who buy it throw it out is directly the producers. Once the chains start diverting their production where it matters we will even see a drop in food price.

Yet somehow people are acting like everything will be alright when the government is printing trillions of dollars to stop the bleeding and paying citizens money for doing nothing just so the economy could stand on its feet once again. Things are going awful!

Well, the GDP is down for the 3 previous months, the effects have already been felt in the economy yet, does it resemble the 1929 crisis? No! And it will not be like that.
Wait for the 3rd quarter, you will suddenly see that things are not looking as scary as they seem now.

[btcgolong]

It's coming back, some sectors are bouncing back, some will take more time. Some industries are hit hard; like Bars, Nightclubs, Movie theaters, etc...they can not make up the lost revenue.

Look at the markets, tech is booming.

Will we pay for all the money printing down the road...some economist say YES, other say NO; so who knows...

[figmentofmyass]

Will we pay for all the money printing down the road...some economist say YES, other say NO; so who knows...

aren't we paying for it now? CPI doesn't tell the whole story. in fact, that's one of the whole scams behind the dominant economic metrics used today. they focus on things like day-to-day consumer consumption. CPI tells us the cost of food, clothes, medical care, things like that. it doesn't tell us what's happening in markets with elastic supply and demand and it doesn't tell us anything about investments.

just look at the price of gold or bitcoin---they're becoming increasingly unaffordable. just imagine what happens when bitcoin breaks above the 2017 high.

economists only care about achieving stable CPI inflation. they don't care that over time, you or i can afford less and less of assets capable of storing any value.

we need to switch to a more holistic approach to measuring the effects of inflation---one that takes into account rising/falling prices across all markets. i doubt that will happen because mainstream economists, heads of industry, and governments all have a strong interest in downplaying how virtually all economic growth today is being siphoned into the financial markets, leaving the working class (who don't have exposure to the markets through retirement accounts and property ownership) increasingly poor relative to real asset values.

the whole system is set up as a land grab.

[Sanitough]

USA was hit big because they have the biggest cases, the major contributory factor is the covid-19, there's none other things to be blame here.
However, it's not only the USA who got hit and into recession already, some countries also struggle as well especially my beloved country the Philippines.

Per report found here ; https://think.ing.com/snaps/philippines-economy-crashes-into-recession-2q-gdp-at-16.5/

Philippines: Economy crashes into recession, down 16.5%
Enhanced quarantine community lockdown measures knocked out household consumption with the economy shrinking 16.5% in the second quarter, the steepest drop on record

Until there's no vaccine for covid-19, we can expect the worst, sorry but it is the reality.