Corona Depression

"He's got the pharaoh syndrome -- king of denial."
 -- Pug Mahoney

    The world is facing the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, as the corona virus slams the doors of business and industry. But the current president wants to reopen the doors so people can return to work, despite the proven risk to their lives.
   The numbers are staggering. Since January, when the first infection was reported in the Seattle area, more than 27,000 Americans have died from this disease, and the only known way to slow the spread is for people to keep a distance from others. Worldwide, there have been more than 128,000 deaths.
   The corporate bottom line, however, seems to be more important to White friends and advisors, and the president denies any responsibility to help the separate states cope with the disease.
   Instead, he insists that he alone has "total authority" over state shut-down orders.
   Note from Pug Mahoney, the resident cynic: You can't have it both ways. The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the federal government does not control everything.
   "The powers not delegated (to the federal government) ... are reserved to the states," says the last and politically most important of the first Ten Amendments.
   The president's claim of "total authority" was overthrown within hours as governors and legal experts joined the chorus.
   Now, as businesses shut down and people lose their jobs, the president endorses corporate efforts to regain profits by reopening the nation for business. In effect, this is like an executive order canceling the disease and ordering the invading virus to leave the country.
   But just as the president has no authority to dictate to the states, he has no jurisdiction over viral diseases, so the current economic downturn will become known as the corona depression of 2020.
   Major economic research organizations agree. The Federal Reserve Board said that "Economic activity contracted sharply and abruptly across all regions in the United States as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic." Moreover, the outlook is "highly uncertain," and conditions are expected to worsen in the next several months.
   The International Monetary Fund was even more specific. "This is a crisis like no other," said IMF Director  Kristalina Georgieva. "We expect the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," she wrote, adding that the IMF projects global growth to fall by minus 3 percent this year, with only a partial recovery in 2021.