Well, we all saw this coming. The liberal press is the enemy of the people. They got it wrong in 2o16 and they have been slapped down, punched, and kicked in the teeth for their serial inaccuracy in covering this White House. They are desperate to attack Trump on something that could hurt his 2020 chances. They got that with this Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., which has infected, as of today, nearly 260,000 Americans. It’s killed at least 6,600. It’s bound to increase. At least 80 percent of the population is now living under stay-at-home orders. The U.S. economy has ground to a halt. Nearly 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment, like restaurants, bars, barbershops, and other jobs considered “non-essential” face ruin with these orders. So, as you’d expect, today’s job numbers were terrible (via Fox Business):
The U.S. economy lost 701,000 jobs in March, snapping a decade-long record of employment growth, as strict measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and forced Americans to stay at home.
It was the first decline in payrolls since September 2010, and the steepest since March 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession.
The unemployment rate jumped to 4.4 percent, up from a half-century low of 3.5 percent in February.
Economists surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast a payroll decline of 100,000 and the unemployment rate to rise to 3.8 percent.
Restaurants, bars, hotels, airlines, cruise lines, automakers and entertainment venues have been hit hard by the pandemic as a growing number of jurisdictions have ordered the closure of nonessential businesses and directed residents to stay at home.
But the Labor Department’s employment report, which is based on surveys conducted in the early weeks of the month, when large swaths of the economy had not yet shut down, does not fully reflect the depth of the economic calamity that the virus outbreak has inflicted. In the final two weeks of the month, 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits, a stunning sign of the scope of the economic crash.
Yet, closing down is the only way to combat the spread, however. Yet, The Washington Post decided to overreach and, in the process, delivered a nice shotgun blast to its face trying to take a swipe at the Trump economy, which was booming. Apparently, this unprecedented global pandemic exposes the fragility of the Trump economy, a garbage take of there ever was one at this time (via WaPo) [emphasis mine]:
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Dumbest take possible. A once in a century pandemic that requires us to almost completely halt all economic activity is not a reflection on the strength of the economy absent such a crisis.
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) March 29, 2020
Point me to an economy that won't be significantly harmed by a similar situation... https://t.co/gLNhpN6oLh
I'm sorry... what economy anywhere at anytime would not grind to a halt when customers, employees, businesses, everyone was not ordered under penalty of law by the government to literally grind to a halt?#UseWaPoForTP https://t.co/dm0jI9cUZB
— Larry O'Connor (@LarryOConnor) March 29, 2020
In the last month, the $21 trillion U.S. economy endured a remarkable and disorienting reversal, plunging from prosperity into an unprecedented deep freeze.
The coronavirus has left businesses from giant corporations to the corner bar struggling for survival. But along with dealing millions of Americans an unexpected blow, the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities that had accumulated during a record-long expansion and years of ultralow interest rates — and which now could make it harder to recover from a recession, economists said.
[…]
On the eve of the crisis, one-quarter of the country’s largest companies had more cash going out than coming in, according to Goldman Sachs. The economic shutdown will quickly cause the share of American companies that are cash-flow negative to nearly double, meaning they could be in danger of starving for funds.
Almost half of the companies in the hardest-hit sectors — industries such as consumer services, transportation and entertainment — will need to secure additional financing within six months or close their doors, Goldman said. Yet such borrowing now is more costly because yields on corporate bonds have risen in disorderly trading this month.
Small businesses face an even tighter deadline: half of the respondents to a Goldman survey said they will not last more than three months if the virus-induced shutdown persists.
The unappreciated frailties did not cause the downturn. The pandemic is responsible for that. And no business can stockpile enough cash to ride out an indefinite shutdown.
So, then, what was the point of this piece. All this talk about credit access and cash flow is utterly ridiculous since, well, everything burns to ash when virtually all economic activity halts. You don’t need to be a Nobel laureate to understand that. The trashy Obama economy would have sunk, as would the Bill Clinton boom in the 1990s. So, please spare us these lectures about how the Trump economy was fragile; a virus will wreck any nation’s economic structure and it has. The media has been lusting to say “I told you so” about the Trump economy and they look as they always have; smug, condescending, and with a not so subtle hatred of people who aren’t kale-eating hippies like themselves. Everyone, including the media, knew that a strong economy boosted Trump’s chances of re-election. That’s now been threatened, but even now the Left cannot win. Trump’s daily pressers with his Wuhan coronavirus task force and Vice President Pence has been critical to boosting his poll numbers to its highest marks yet, with a majority of Americans, including 60 percent on Independents and over a quarter of Democrats (even CNN had to report on this), approving of how the president has responded to this outbreak in the country. Maybe if the anti-Trump opposition press would get on board and try to help the country instead of publishing trash articles in the hopes of brewing more partisanship and stock market crashes—they wouldn’t be hated as much. But I think that train has left the station.
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