No surprise here. You cannot put 6.6 million Americans out of work in two weeks and not expect an econimic depression.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As projections of the coronavirus death toll soar, forecasts for the ensuing economic carnage have also quickly turned much darker — both for the depth and duration of the damage.
Where only days ago, economists were following President Donald Trump’s lead in saying the U.S. economy would be back on track relatively quickly, a growing number now say the downturn will likely exceed the Great Recession of 2008-09.
U.S. economic output, which has grown without interruption for a record 10½ years, could fall as much as 9 percent in 2020 — more than three times the sharpest drop during the Great Recession, according to some predictions. At the height of the Great Depression in 1932, the economy shrank a record 12.9 percent.
“This is the dilemma of the disease and of the economy. To limit and control the disease you basically have to kill the economy. It’s a trade-off,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit. The research firm doesn’t see an economic return to pre-pandemic levels for two to three years.