financial collapse – Page 7 – Desdemona Despair

Aerial view of mass graves in Manaus, Brazil, 22 April 2020. Photo: Sandro Pereira / Fotoarena / Folhapress

December 4, 2020

U.N. warns 2021 shaping up to be a humanitarian catastrophe – “The worst humanitarian crisis year since the beginning of the United Nations 75 years ago”

By Michelle Nichols 4 December 2020 NEW YORK (Reuters) – Next year is shaping up to be a humanitarian catastrophe and rich countries must not trample poor countries in a “stampede for vaccines” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, top U.N. officials told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Friday. World Food Programme (WFP) chief David […]

U.S. gross domestic product, 1950-2020. Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020 as restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 150,000 people in the U.S. The economic shock in April, May, and June was more than three times as sharp as the previous record — 10 percent in 1958 — and nearly four times the worst quarter during the Great Recession. Data: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Graphic: Alyson Hurt / NPR

July 30, 2020

3 months of hell: U.S. economy drops 32.9 percent in worst GDP report ever – “We’re not going to get to the pre-pandemic levels of economic activity until sometime in 2022”

By Scott Horsley 30 July 2020 (NPR) – The coronavirus pandemic triggered the sharpest economic contraction in modern American history, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter as restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a […]

Map showing the most commonly used opioid, 2018 or latest available data. Data: UNODC, responses to the annual report questionnaire. Graphic: UNODC

June 26, 2020

UN World Drug Report 2020: Global drug use increased 30 percent from 2009 – COVID-19 has far reaching impact on global drug markets

VIENNA, 25 June 2020 (UNODC) – Around 269 million people used drugs worldwide in 2018, which is 30 per cent more than in 2009, while over 35 million people suffer from drug use disorders, according to the latest World Drug Report, released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The Report […]

World gross product, level and annual changes, 2010–2020 and projected through 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed large parts of the global economy, sharply restricting economic activities, increasing uncertainties and unleashing a recession unseen since the Great Depression. Global gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to shrink by 3.2 per cent in 2020, with only a gradual recovery of lost output projected for 2021. Cumulatively, the world economy is expected to lose nearly $8.5 trillion in output in 2020 and 2021, nearly wiping out the cumulative output gains of the previous four years. Data: UN DESA, based on scenarios produced with the World Economic Forecasting Model (WEFM). Graphic: UN DESA

June 22, 2020

UN World Economic Situation report: Global economy to contract by 3.2 percent in 2020 – 34 million people to fall below the extreme poverty line

13 May 2020 (UNDESA) – Against the backdrop of a devastating pandemic, the global economy is projected to contract sharply by 3.2 per cent this year, according to the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) mid-2020 report, released today. The global economy is expected to lose nearly $8.5 trillion in output over the […]

Forcibly displaced people worldwide, 1990-2019. At the end of 2019, nearly 80 million people were displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order. Forced displacement is now affecting more than one per cent of humanity – 1 in every 97 people – and with fewer and fewer of those who flee being able to return home. Graphic: UNHCR

June 20, 2020

UN refugee report 2020: 1 percent of humanity now displaced, doubling since 2010 – “Forced displacement now is not only vastly more widespread but is no longer a short-term and temporary phenomenon”

18 June 2020 (UNHCR) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is today appealing to countries worldwide to do far more to find homes for millions of refugees and others displaced by conflict, persecution or events seriously disturbing public order. This is as a report released today showed that forced displacement is now affecting more than […]

Collateralized loan obligations (CLOs): An Illustrated Guide. Data: Fitch Ratings. The fourth CLO depicts an aggregate leveraged-loan default rate of 78 percent. Graphic: the Atlantic

June 14, 2020

The looming bank collapse – “This crisis is more horrifying than I anticipated”

By Frank Partnoy 14 June 2020 (The Atlantic) – After months of living with the coronavirus pandemic, American citizens are well aware of the toll it has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged […]

Screenshot from “Honest Government Ad: Economic Recovery”. Photo: The Juice Media

June 9, 2020

Honest Government Ad: Economic Recovery in Australia

4 June 2020 (The Juice Media) – Hello, I’m from the Australian government. As we head into the worst economic recession in living history, what the nation needs now is leadership, evidence-based policies, and bold vision. And fucked if we have those. So instead, we’ve cooked up something else. That’s right, while you’ve been in […]

Growth in U.S. economic output for ten generations. This graph shows how much inflation-adjusted gross domestic product per person grew during each generation's first fifteen years in the workforce, starting at age 18, averaged across all the birth years within each generation. Data are adjusted for population. Graphic: The Washington Post

May 30, 2020

Millennials are the unluckiest generation in U.S. history – “It’s not just that it’s a bad recession, and that it’s hitting young people more, but that it’s hitting people who have already been hit”

By Andrew Van Dam 27 March 2020 (The Washington Post) – After accounting for the present crisis, the average millennial has experienced slower economic growth since entering the workforce than any other generation in U.S. history. Millennials will bear these economic scars over the rest of their lives, in the form of lower earnings, lower […]

Monthly job gains or losses in the U.S., from 1939 to 30 April 2020. Data: U.S. Labor Department. Graphic: The Washington Post

May 8, 2020

U.S. unemployment rate soars to 14.7 percent, the worst since the Great Depression – “This is a catastrophe. When things go over a cliff, they usually they don’t recover quickly.”

By Heather Long 8 May 2020 (The Washington Post) – The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent in April, the highest level since the Great Depression, as most businesses shut down or severely curtailed operations to fight the deadly coronavirus. The jobless rate was pushed higher because 20.5 million people lost their jobs last […]

Trump, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Kushner as Immortan Joe and henchmen from “Mad Max: Fury Road”. “But nowhere has our policy been more evident than backward countries and failed states. Like the U.S. Here, as thousands of people died and got buried in mass graves, Il Duce left you to fight each other over medical equipment by entrusting it to his little shit-goblin-in-law.” Photo: The Juice Media

May 1, 2020

Honest Government Ad: Pandemic Update – “Scientists have been warning us for decades to prepare for this crisis. Did we? Of course not.”

30 April 2020 (The Juice Media) – The Government has made an ad about its response to the pandemic, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative. Scientists have been warning us for decades to prepare for this crisis. Did we? Of course not. The Machine said there was no profit in preventing future crises. So instead, […]