The coronavirus is not a real crisis. The economic collapse however is a very real crisis and one that is not getting nearly enough attention. This past week saw millions of additional unemployment claims filed.
Another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as massive job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic continued to grow.
The new report, which covers the week ending April 18, brings total job losses since the virus outbreak triggered widespread stay-at-home measures five weeks ago to more than 26 million, erasing the entirety of the 22.78 million labor market gains since the Great Recession more than a decade ago.
With a labor force that totals about 162 million people, the claims figures suggest the unemployment rate is about 16 percent, or roughly one in six Americans — significantly higher than the 10 percent peak seen during the 2008 financial crisis. The previous one-week high for jobless claims was 695,800 in 1982.
Even though 4.4 million is slightly less than what was filed in previous weeks, it is still a staggering number. We can probably expect to see millions of unemployment claims filed for the next several weeks.
I personally believe that we’ll see unemployment numbers between 30 percent and 50 percent. Entire industries have been decimated over this lunatic lockdown situation. We also see no signs that state governments are prepared to lift these lockdowns in any substantive fashion.
I hope all of you have guns, gold, silver, bitcoins, seeds and storable food. There’s no telling how bad this is going to get, but my intention is to blog and comment on this insanity for as long as I am able.
