While one curve bends, the unemployment curve surges: 26.5 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance as we inch closer to Great Depression figures.

The economic devastation brought on by the COVID19 outbreak has been dramatic.  Healthcare systems across the world are undergoing stress that they have not witnessed in our lifetimes.  The economic devastation is also startling as 26.5 million Americans have now filed for unemployment insurance dwarfing anything we saw during the Great Recession.  This is a troubling time for Americans both on a healthcare front and an economic front. Yet the stark reality is that as a nation, the majority of our country was living one paycheck away from economic devastation.  And here we are, with the economy essentially shut down and paychecks not coming through. While we may be bending the curve when it comes to COVID19, the economic damage curve is not going to recover for a very long time.

Charts highlight the impact

It is hard to illustrate how bad things are on the economic front.  And the long-lasting impact will be felt for many years to come. This is not a hit that can be recovered from that quickly.

Take a look at this economic devastation:

26.5 million Americans have now filed for unemployment insurance.  And those are the people that were actually able to get through and file.  This is a stunning figure. The economy has come to a grinding halt and these people will have trouble paying mortgages, rents, car loans, and servicing their obligations so you can imagine the downstream effects of this on the economy.

One example of this is globally the restaurant industry has come to a stand still aside from curbside pickup:

In many places dine-in traffic has fallen by 100 percent – in other words, all of the business is shut down.  Even during the Great Recession we saw traffic decrease but it was subtle and that had a big impact. This is essentially shutting the entire system down.

So when things reboot, will people go back to restaurants as they once did?  Will people pack into movie theaters? Will large sporting events take place as they once did?  These are things that are yet to be seen.

As we go into another week, we know that the unemployment insurance claims will go up once again.  At this point, we are inching close to Great Depression levels of unemployment. How anyone in their right mind can think this is going to be a V-recovery is beyond me.  This is going to leave scars on our global psyche for years to come. And there are many questions that will be asked as the months move along with demands for answers and solutions.  

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