US suffers worst economic decline on record in second quarter as GDP contracts by 32.9%

The United States has suffered its worst economic decline on record with the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracting by 32.9 percent in the second quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to cause one of the largest financial crises in history.

The Commerce Department's estimate of the second-quarter decline in GDP, the total output of goods and services, marked the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947.

The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10 percent drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration. News of the contraction came as the US also reported its second consecutive week in which the number of people seeking unemployment benefits ticked upwards, hinting at signs of a faltering recovery.

US suffers worst economic decline on record in second quarter as GDP contracts by 32.9%

Coronavirus lockdowns and layoffs have wreaked havoc on the American economy. Congress can't seem to pass a bill and the POTUS is too busy suggesting we delay the election.

America is in a bad place right now.

a reply to: links234

this isn't a surprise. But once we can get back out in the world, the recovery will be a welcome site. If we ever can.

a reply to: links234

News of the contraction came as the US also reported its second consecutive week in which the number of people seeking unemployment benefits ticked upwards, hinting at signs of a faltering recovery.

Uhhh yeah. How are we supposed to recover with Covid-1984 still being oppressed on us.

Nothing will recover until they quit with the draconian BS.

a reply to: KKLOCO
The recovery will be record breaking!

a reply to: links234

I wonder-Has someone figured out that waging a war against America is more effective if you don't use conventional means?


“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
The greatest victory is that which requires no battle."
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

originally posted by: links234

America is in a bad place right now.

The good news is the US recovery can be extremely quick unlike other places that were already depressed like EU, China etc...The US economy was strong and still is strong outside of this self inflicted blow holding it down...Its like we chained it up, but it is pulling at its chain.

a reply to: links234

DOW is only down 0.83% right now... lol what a screwed up market

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: links234

this isn't a surprise. But once we can get back out in the world, the recovery will be a welcome site. If we ever can.

Agreed. But given the current trajectory most of those in power are suggesting, the "restart" is just as scary as the shutdown to me.

Ungodly inflation, bad policy, and programs that would even make a European socialist blush.

I think Peter Schiff said it very well on Joe Rogan's podcast. Many are comparing this to WWII era downfalls and recoveries. But if we really want to do that, we have to acknowledge the context we approached debt very differently then. Coming out the depression, we funded the war by offering bonds to the middle class. Think about that for a second everyone. The worst (debatable) depression we've ever gone through and the middle class still had liquidity to fund a war.

Now we approach "recovery" with cheap interest rates. Rather than encouraging saving and or investing, we're incentivizing credit lines.

Any time we get skittish, our first reaction is to put more air into the bubble. I feel that I was born in the wrong timeline. The lack of personal responsibility or any amount of grit in society is foreign to me.

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: links234

DOW is only down 0.83% right now... lol what a screwed up market

Look into the Fed balance sheet in relation to the S&P 500. The two are alarmingly in lockstep. Meaning, if we took away the trillions the Fed injected into the market, there's an argument to be made the market would still be at the levels they were in March.

The market we're seeing may very well be just inflated to instill confidence in investors and the public.

All that money could have been used in other facets, instead it may have been utilized for an illusion.

We shut down virtually every small and medium sized business in the United States for almost 5 months, what do you expect to happen to GDP?

a reply to: CriticalStinker

I sure don't know the answers here, but I'd rather take the hit on personal responsibility failing than to be forced into isolation again. This virus has become less of an enigma over the past few months, and we know that it is bad for old folks and not nearly as bad for young people.

But just as Obama did with health care, the entire system must be destroyed to help one group. (pre existing conditions)

Maybe those at the greatest risk could "shelter in place" while the rest of us try to get this nation back on it's feet.

a reply to: network dude

I can empathize with the reasoning everyone has (politicians exempt) for how we continue to go forward.

I'm sure most would find mine the most unsavory, and many would call it insensitive.

Personally I'd like to see the band aid pulled off. Let the free market decide the levels of everything. Would there be unprecedented pain felt by Americans? Absolutely. But right now we're all writing checks for the future to cash. Reconciliation and the realizing of all the cans kicked to the end of the road is inevitable. But it is exponential, and the longer it takes to realize those figures, the harsher it will be.

This comes with the caveat I'm single, and have no children (also no intention of that unless through adoption). I can't hold it against anyone with kids for not wanting to see the wound under the band aid, for I cannot sympathize with that life experience and the implications that are inherent with it. But, I would say that certainly could be one of the variables as to why we're at where we are now. We all lack grit. We are not the WWII generation. They burned down structures to salvage nails for the next. While they quite literally did that, I think it serves as a looking glass for their mentality.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

I think your approach is what will work, but I doubt it will happen. We are giant pussies. Sacred to death of all things we can't easily explain. When the majority operates off of feelz and not facts, you won't be able to get folks to "man up".

I just hope the thinking folks realize getting out of debt is key to long term survival. Being a slave to a bank sucks and usually takes a while to sink in. I know it took me quite a few tries to leave the credit world behind, just as it took a few tries to quit smoking. Both made me feel better in the long run.

a reply to: network dude

I just hope the thinking folks realize getting out of debt is key to long term survival. Being a slave to a bank sucks and usually takes a while to sink in. I know it took me quite a few tries to leave the credit world behind, just as it took a few tries to quit smoking. Both made me feel better in the long run.

Man, you just hit a lot of the things I've just realized right there. When I read the first sentence in the quoted paragraph, I was going to say we would find liberty through relinquishing our leveraged debt, but you said that in a different way in the second line.

The quitting smoking hits home with me too. I just quit a month ago.

I was already having life altering experiences going into COVID. The kind that had me questioning the very fabric of my world view and reality. Then queue in COVID.... Things got real weird, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared sh**less. I had an epiphany, and I snapped in a good way. I went through many sleepless nights to get onto a track where I felt at least comfortable with the direction. Lost my job half way through the COVID mess, and already found a vastly better one. One of my realizations was that COVID was just an amplifier, and I was complacent to begin with, and it just served as a catalyst for me to realize that.

I've lost 30 pounds, I'm almost in shape, I have new hobbies, freed myself from debt unless it's refied to lower rates and only exiting to serve a later objective, I've quit smoking, I drink extremely rarely now only on special occasions, I have better relationships with everyone I care about, I love and trust myself more, and most importantly I've found liberation. I'm free from fear now, and that's opened so many doors I couldn't put it into words.

I can't take credit for what I've found, as it's really the thesis of almost every sacred text and mission statement for many coveted ideologies. It's all right in front of us. And the craziest thing is how easy it is once you just strap down and get through the first hurdles.

I want this for everyone, I truly do. I only see benefit in all of us collectively moving forward. Unfortunately that requires all of us to admit something very hard, and that is that we all are/were wrong. I don't see the latter happening. But that won't stop be from navigating this the way I deem fit, and in such a way I find enrichment.

a reply to: links234

Everywhere on Planet Earth is the same, we are all suffering greatly. Can't blame anyone sh*t happens................... Just prepare for the recovery.

When that happens you guys in the States are gonna really do well. You got everything going for yu. Just like Rssia you have an enormous land mass with all the oil, gas, coal, minerals, agriculture, scenic tourism etc to harness and produce.

It's the little countries like Britain, Italy, Moldova etc with few resources and an over populated land area that are really in a mess as some other poster mentioned.

USA will always do well and anyway it's been re-inventing itself economically one way or another ever since you sent the Brits sailing back to our little island

A stimulus package, inflated unemployment checks and now a second stimulus. There is no such thing as a free lunch and all those "freebies" will have to be paid back one way or another. A conservative genius such as trump should have known better. Sad.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: network dude
But right now we're all writing checks for the future to cash that the future can't cash.

FTFY. We have to be realistic, that debt is never getting paid off. We'll be paying the price for it (interest) permanently. Either we open this goddamn country back up ASAP and deal with any sickie fallout as it comes in, or we REALLY need to re-evaluate just what kind of financial/economic system is really doable compared to how we live and how we expect safety netting to prevent the country from being a sunken shipwreck. Either capitalism works and will iron itself out right out the gate and in that case, all the restrictions need to disappear immediately to prove it, or we need to admit it doesn't, and hammer out a new system of some kind.

One or the other. We need to s#, or get off the proverbial pot.

a reply to: links234

Just a point of contention. The numbers are bad, really bad, but the 32% number is a bit misleading, that's an compounded figure that is extended out for a year. The actual real decline is about 9.5%, still very bad and rivalling only 1893 and 1937 in how poor the economy is doing.

Think about that, the Great Depression and the the crash to which the Great Depression was compared to. Someone tell me again how this shutdown was worth while?

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I heard it saved twenty lives.

All Lives Matter!

Don't shoot me please. 😨

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
I heard it saved twenty lives.

And ruined millions more financial futures.