Recession

US Retail Sales Plunged A Record 16% In April

May 17, 2020 Josh Boak and Anne D'Innocenzio, AP News. Educate! Consumerism, Economic collapse, Recession

Baltimore, MD - U.S. retail sales tumbled by a record 16.4% from March to April as business shutdowns caused by the coronavirus kept shoppers away, threatened the viability of stores across the country and further weighed down a sinking economy. The Commerce Department’s report Friday on retail purchases showed a sector that has collapsed so fast that sales over the past 12 months are down a crippling 21.6%. The severity of the decline is unrivaled for retail figures that date back to 1992. The monthly decline in April nearly doubled the previous record drop of 8.3% — set just one month earlier. “It’s like a hurricane came and leveled the entire economy, and now we’re trying to get it back up and running,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for the consultancy Maria Fiorini Ramirez.

As Corporations Adapt To A COVID-19 Economy, The Working-Class Prepares For A Paradigm Shift

May 16, 2020 By Raul Diego, Mintpress News. Educate! COVID-19, Recession, wealth inequality, Worker Rights and Jobs

For the vast majority of us, the move to a completely digital economy represents an even more unfair deal than we already have as low-level participants in a billionaires’ economy. When Elon Musk tweeted that he was going to sell off “most” of his earthly possessions, many cheered the Tesla CEO for taking what appeared to be such an ‘enlightened’ step. But, what isn’t readily apparent to most people is that in this post-COVID-19 economy that McKinsey is promoting, Elon and all his friends will be moving into your house. With the so-called “remote-first” organizational model for corporations, our homes will become their new office space. Companies all over the United States can then enrich themselves further by selling off or renting out their real estate assets, while your living room becomes your boss’ new conference room.

Scheer Intelligence: Big Banks Got The Sweetest Deal From The Covid-19 Bailouts

May 15, 2020 Robert Scheer, Popular Resistance. Educate! Big Banks, Corporate Bailout, Podcast, Recession

It’s been over a decade since the 2008 banking meltdown, and yet many Americans are still living with the consequences of the financial crisis and the Obama administration’s decision to bailout banks over people with their own tax money. As Covid-19 spread around the world, and the economic impacts of the public health crisis began to take shape, the U.S. government once again faced a similar choice regarding bailouts. This time, Congress passed the CARES Act, which, on paper, aimed to help working people and small business owners most affected by both the virus and the lockdown measures used to combat the crisis, seemingly marking a shift from the 2008 crisis handling. Yet, as banking expert Nomi Prins points out to “Scheer Intelligence” host Robert Scheer in the latest installment of his podcast, banks and large companies are once more taking advantage of a crisis to swindle the public.

#GeneralStrike2020: How To Participate

This prolonged and broad campaign will organize around a list of basic demands, as outlined here. Not on the list, but included is the demand to save the US Postal Service. The campaign will follow a three-prong strategy - resistance through noncompliance, mutual aid and building alternative systems in our communities rooted in cooperation, solidarity and participatory democracy. On the next national day of action, June 1, there will be many activities. Read through and decide how you can best participate in the actions. There is something for everyone to do. Be creative!

COVID-19 Can Trigger Revolution—Here’s How!

May 12, 2020 By Isa Benros, Phil Wilmot and Søren Warburg, International Center for Nonviolent Conflict. Strategize! COVID-19, Pandemic, Recession, Trigger Moment

COVID-19 is an example of what movement analysts call a “trigger event.” When shocking events of immense scale occur suddenly—such as natural disasters, military coups, economic collapse, or virus pandemics—they drastically alter life as we know it, and radically shift public sentiment. The previously unimaginable quickly becomes reality. Trigger events create confusion and unease, but they also present tremendous opportunities for those who have a plan and know how to use the moment to push their agendas. Those in power and private interest groups are already doing this to ensure that they will come out of the crisis with their wealth and position still intact. Activists must push an agenda that represents the public interest—the imperative of a just society and the rights of ordinary people—with effective strategies for advancing relevant new policies.

Low-Balling The Unemployed In The 2020 Economic Collapse

May 12, 2020 Jack Rasmus, Predicting the Global Economic Crisis. Educate! Economic collapse, Jobs, Recession, Unemployment

This past Friday, May 8, the US Labor Dept. released its latest jobless figures. The official report was 20 million more unemployed and an unemployment rate of 14.7%. Both mainstream and progressive media reported the numbers: 20 million more jobless and 14.7%. But those numbers, as horrendous as they are, represent a gross under-estimation of the jobless situation in America! One might understand why the mainstream media consistently under-reports the jobless. But it is perplexing why so many progressives continue to simply parrot the official figures. Especially when other Labor Dept. data admits the true unemployment rate is 22.4% and the officially total unemployed is 23.1 million. Here’s why the 20 million and 14.7% is a gross under-representation of the magnitude of jobless today:

Italian Town Prints Own ‘Currency’ To Help Locals And Businesses

May 12, 2020 Alessio Dellanna, Euro News. Create! Italy, Local Currency, New Economy, Recession

Castellino del Biferno is a small town in south Italy's Molise region with only 550 residents. Minting money is something town mayor Enrico Fratangelo has been studying for over twelve years. The Covid-19 pandemic gave him the opportunity to test his skills. "We decided to mint money to make sure the local economy could withstand the impact of the situation. However small this economy may be, there are three or four businesses still open, without considering bars or pubs," Fratangelo explained. "Ducati" Banknotes are distributed to the residents in accordance with their economic needs. They have already spent thousands of "Ducati" at their local shops. Every two weeks, the shops return the "Ducati" to the town council and get the corresponding amount in euros.

Mutual Aid: Building Networks Of Solidarity Not Charity

May 11, 2020 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast COVID-19, Mutual Aid, Recession, Solidarity

In the face of the twin crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic collapse, people are organizing mutual aid networks to provide food, medicines and other basics to those in need. This is done in the spirit of solidarity, not charity, a non-hierarchical empowering approach versus a hierarchical exploitative approach. We speak with Eleanor Goldfield, an activist in Washington, DC who is active in her local mutual aid network and has written about it, about how they are organizing, the response from the community and government and how this fits into the bigger picture of resistance and building alternative systems to meet human needs. Some resources that Eleanor suggests are MutualAidDisasterRelief.org, ItsGoingDown.org and her website, ArtKillingApathy.com.

Pandemic Crash Shows Worker Co-ops More Resilient Than Traditional Business

May 11, 2020 By Brian Van Slyke, Truthout. Create! New Economy, Recession, Worker Cooperatives, Worker Ownership

While we have no way to know yet the full extent of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, by all accounts it could be as bad — if not far worse — than the 2008 crash. In fact, in terms of unemployment alone, the numbers are already staggering: more than 33 million jobs have been lost so far in the U.S. during the coronavirus shutdowns, compared to the roughly 8.6 million lost in the Great Recession. Following that crisis, many working people turned to the worker cooperative model as a way to build economic resiliency and stability for themselves. In the decade after 2008, the number of worker-owned cooperatives in the United States nearly doubled, increasing from 350 to 600. I know, because I am a member of one of those cooperatives that formed: The TESA Collective, which creates tools and games for social change.

Covid-19 Is A Reason To Start The Green New Deal Now

May 11, 2020 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Create! Green New Deal, New Economy, Recession, Unemployment

Our political leaders, Republican and Democrat, are leaving tens of millions of people in free fall. Instead of a guaranteed income and universal, single-payer healthcare, we are offered paltry, one-time checks and unemployment payments (for those who qualify—and many don’t, including all undocumented people). Epidemiologists tell us that people must stay home to curb the spread of the virus—yet, to do so, people need a consistent income, which most cannot achieve from home. We have been offered no road map for keeping bread lines—like the 10,000 families who showed up at a food bank in San Antonio—from growing ever longer. Even as there are no jobs, work is piling up. For example, any plan to safely emerge from shutdown also requires contact tracing, which involves mass testing to find people who have been infected with the virus, then tracking down and monitoring anyone they have come in contact with.

Once Again, Congress Will Let Wall Street Pillage Main Street

May 10, 2020 Leonard C. Goodman, PopularResistance. Educate! Bailout, Congress, Recession, Workers

Over the last decade, Congress’s approval ratings have hovered around the mid-teens or low 20s, reflecting the reality that our representatives in Washington, D.C., serve the needs of big donors while throwing an occasional rhetorical bone to the “essential” workers who actually make the country function. Congress’s handling of the current crisis of the pandemic is unlikely to improve its ratings. Working Americans are facing an unprecedented disaster. Before the virus hit, half of them lived paycheck to paycheck and didn’t have $400 saved for an emergency. Now they have been ordered to stay home. Many have no income while their rents, utility bills, student loans, and credit card debts are accruing. The small businesses—restaurants, gyms, and stores—that provide half of the nation’s jobs were ordered to shut down. Their rents are accruing. And with no income coming in, many have little chance of repaying what they owe when the economy reopens.

Bank Of England Warns Economy Could Contract By 14% In 2020

May 8, 2020 By Michael Settle, The Herald. Educate! Depression, Finance and the Economy, Recession

The Bank of England has warned the UK economy could, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, shrink by as much as 14% this year, which would be the biggest slump in 300 years. In the current quarter, the contraction to the national output of GDP could be as deep as 25 percent. Britain was already in recession, having contracted, the Bank suggested, by 3% in the first quarter. Covid-19, it explained, was "dramatically reducing jobs and incomes in the UK". The unemployment rate is expected to double to around 9%. The predicted contraction would be the sharpest since the South Sea Bubble of 1720 when stocks crashed. However, the Bank also suggests the economy could bounce bank next year, growing by 15 percent. In what it calls an “illustrative scenario,” it says this “incorporates a very sharp fall in UK GDP in 2020 H1 and a substantial increase in unemployment in addition to those workers who are furloughed currently.

Reopening The Economy Will Send Us To Hell

May 6, 2020 Mike Davis, LA Progressive. Educate! COVID-19, Recession, Reopen Economy, Working Class

As we head into the fifth month of the outbreak, millions of working families feel like they have been kidnapped and sent to hell. As unemployment (officially reported) soars toward 30 percent or more, an estimated 20 million more people will fall helplessly below the poverty line. In a recent Pew poll, 60 percent of Latinos reported losing jobs or wages, as did more than half of all workers below the age of 30. In addition to their jobs, millions will lose everything they had spent their lives working for: homes, pensions, medical coverage, and savings accounts. Most of us have already lived through a brutal preview of economic collapse: the 2008-09 “Great Recession.” In a span of 18 months a majority of Black and Latino families lost all their net wealth and college grads from non-privileged backgrounds found themselves marooned, seemingly for life, in the low-wage service economy.

The Disconnect Between The Stock Market And The Real Economy Is Destroying Our Lives

May 6, 2020 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Educate! COVID-19, Recession, Wall Street, wealth inequality

In the month of April—as 30 million Americans filed for unemployment, and destitute small businesses closed forever, and rent strikes were demanded, and city and state governments forecast years of grim austerity—the U.S. stock market had its best month in more than 30 years. Day after day, we were treated to stories of absolute ruin in the real economy, right next to another glorious rise in stocks. After a sharp selloff in March, the S&P 500 index has bounced back to where it was in the fall of 2019, as if that little devastating global pandemic were nothing more than a fleeting, momentary annoyance. The glaring disconnect between the real economy, of working humans with jobs and bills to pay, and the investor class economy, embodied by the stock market, is one of the most brutal and devious political issues of this age of crisis in which we’re living.

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