Historic GDP Contraction, Unemployment Claims Rise

As COVID-19 continues to spread unchecked and deaths approach 154,000 (conservatively), the U.S. gross domestic product for the second quarter (April- June) contracted at an historic 9.5 percent (annualized rate of 32.9 percent), the worst plunge ever recorded based on data compiled since 1947.

The U.S. economy shrank 9.5 percent from April through June, the largest quarterly decline since the government began publishing data 70 years ago, and the latest, sobering reflection of the pandemic’s economic devastation.

The second quarter report on gross domestic product covers some of the economy’s worst weeks in living memory, when commercial activity ground to a halt, millions of Americans lost their jobs and the nation went into lockdown. Yet economists say the data should also serve as a cautionary tale for what’s at stake if the recovery slips away, especially as rising coronavirus cases in some states have forced businesses to close once again.

GDP shrank at an annual rate of 32.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the agency that publishes the statistics on quarterly economic activity. While it usually stresses the annualized rate, that figure is less useful this quarter because the economy is unlikely to experience another collapse like it did in the second quarter.

Another surge in unemployment claims completes the COVID/ GDP/ unemployment trifecta:

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose again last week, as the economy stalled amid surges of the coronavirus, and extra help from the federal government came to an end.

A total of 1.4 million people filed jobless claims for the first time as businesses given a green light to welcome back customers shut their doors again to slow the spread of COVID 19.

The latest tally means that in less than five months, a stunning 54.1 million have sought unemployment aid for the first time.

Also keep in mind, while this is happening in the real world, the Republican Senate and Trump regime dither and find new ways to make the economic suffering worse for average Americans with their criminally irresponsible "Shitheels Act" (billions for a new FBI building and F-35 fighters, though!).  So far, by refusing to extend enhanced unemployment benefits, these well- heeled, cosseted sociopaths threaten to push the economy even further down the chasm they created.

That it all can be traced back to the mind- numbing inaction of a self- serving, incompetent "president," abetted by a rotted- out party and its media mouthpieces makes this yet another inflection point for the existential need to rid ourselves of these destroyers.