Trump loves to brag about doing things that no other president has done. He has now set a record that reflects the trouble the nation is in. The US economy just hit a new low.
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 desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus. The economic shock in April, May and June was roughly four times as sharp as the worst quarterly decline during the Great Recession.
“Horrific,” said Nariman Behravesh, who serves as the chief economist at IHS Markit. “We’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
March and April mostly caused this unprecedented plunge. The economy began to recover in May and June but then stalled in July as surges of new coronavirus cases were reported in many states across the country as many Americans refused to follow CDC guidelines. Many doctors and scientists who specialize in infectious diseases and viruses say that if the US would have followed the guidelines the country would probably be in much better shape with the virus under control. President Trump is looked at as the “leader” of the “anti-mask” movement as he himself has often refused to personally wear a mask and claimed the virus would go away for months as the virus took hold in the US.
The following graph, with data provided by the Bureau of Economic Statistics, shows just how bad the economy shrank:
This decline is roughly between three or four times worse than any other quarter in modern American history.
Trump has now set a record America hopes no other president will ever come close to.
Featured image via screen capture
