Breadlines growing

[demi-conservative]

In Amherst, home to the University of Massachusetts' largest campus, the pantry distributed 849% more food in March compared with the previous year. The second-largest increase in western Massachusetts was 748% at the Pittsfield Salvation Army pantry.

The Grace Klein community food pantry in Jefferson county, which has the largest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Alabama, provided 5,076 individuals with food boxes last week – a 90% increase on the previous week.

In southern Arizona, demand has doubled, with pantries supplying groceries to 4,000 households every day – double the number supplied in March 2019. "We saw an increase during the federal government shutdown but nothing as rapid, massive or overwhelming as this," said Michael McDonald, CEO of the Community Food Bank of South Arizona.

A helpline set up by the Greater Pittsburgh community food bank has received more than a thousand calls in the past two weeks, 90% of which came from newly unemployed people. Here, pantries ordered 50% to 60% more food for March and April than usual.

The Lakeview pantry in Chicago is on track to provide food for as many as 2,000 individuals this week – compared with 1,100 before the coronavirus crisis.

"First, we saw people who lived paycheck to paycheck, got laid off and didn't know where the next meal was coming from, followed by those who had a couple of weeks of savings. Now, people who knew about us because they donated or volunteered are coming in for food," said Jerry Brown, media spokesman for St Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona. "The 2008 recession doesn't touch this. It's a different ballgame."
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-f...new-breadlines

On Thursday, hundreds of motorists waited hours to collect food from a food bank in Orlando, a city that has seen a surge in unemployment after the town's famous theme parks were forced to close its doors to the coronavirus outbreak.

Last Monday, motorists were forced to wait on a mile-long line for a drive-up emergency food distribution set up in Pittsburgh to meet social distancing requirements due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, had only 1500 food boxes as local police set up portable toilets every 3/10ths of a mile to handle the large crowds who showed up.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-600-cent.html

A Depression has started.

[Sparko]

I bet Bernie is so happy to see bread lines in the USA. "Bread lines are good!"

[KingsGambit]

One well known Christian apologist insisted to me the other day that "every economic expert" he'd read thinks the economy will bounce right back. I don't know how anybody could seriously think that in light of what we're seeing.

[seanD]

One well known Christian apologist insisted to me the other day that "every economic expert" he'd read thinks the economy will bounce right back. I don't know how anybody could seriously think that in light of what we're seeing.

Cognitive dissonance. Normalcy bias. Optimism bias.

[demi-conservative]

One well known Christian apologist insisted to me the other day that "every economic expert" he'd read thinks the economy will bounce right back. I don't know how anybody could seriously think that in light of what we're seeing.

"Every economic expert" tends to be wrong when it matters.

[demi-conservative]

The first people to lose their jobs worked at restaurants, malls, hotels and other places that closed to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Higher skilled work, which often didn’t require personal contact, seemed more secure.

That’s not how it’s turning out.

A second wave of job loss is hitting those who thought they were safe. Businesses that set up employees to work from home are laying them off as sales plummet. Corporate lawyers are seeing jobs dry up. Government workers are being furloughed as state and city budgets are squeezed. And health-care workers not involved in fighting the pandemic are suffering.

Emily Hill thought her job as a dental assistant was safe, being in an in-demand field and employed through the military. She worked as a contractor at a dental clinic on Fort Hood in Texas.

“I always felt untouchable,” she said. “This really puts you in your place.”

When word of possible layoffs began to spread in mid-March, clinic staff expected a week or two without pay. Employees jokingly shared a PowerPoint presentation on how to file for unemployment benefits. That document became essential when she and her colleagues were informed they’d be without a job at least through June 19. The military had given stop-work orders to all nonessential contractors on base to limit any risk they might spread Covid-19.

“It went from no big deal to ‘Oh my gosh, what the hell am I going to do?’ ” said Ms. Hill, who is now collecting $320 a week in unemployment benefits. She and other laid-off workers are likely to see larger payments when states distribute additional federal funds.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-secon...fe-11586872387

Situation is getting worse.

[demi-conservative]

5 million more jobless claims, 22 million total.

[seer]

A Depression has started.

No it hasn't.

[seanD]

No it hasn't.

It has, it's just that we can't compare it to any other depression of the past. Had the government in the 30s distributed stimulus money to tax payers, beefed up unemployment insurance, used literally trillions to bail out companies and keep the market propped up, it would have been an entirely different outcome back then. There's no way to predict what the outcome will be now because we've never done this before, heck, no one has ever done this. But all indicators is that this is worse than the last depression when it comes strictly to the data even if the immediate effects aren't the same.

[Sparko]

It has, it's just that we can't compare it to any other depression of the past. Had the government in the 30s distributed stimulus money to tax payers, beefed up unemployment insurance, used literally trillions to bail out companies and keep the market propped up, it would have been an entirely different outcome back then. There's no way to predict what the outcome will be now because we've never done this before, heck, no one has ever done this. But all indicators is that this is worse than the last depression when it comes strictly to the data even if the immediate effects aren't the same.

I was looking at the stock market crash of 1929 and comparing it to today's market. After the initial crash, the market rallied up fairly well but then came the downward tumble that led to the great depression. Right now our market is looking like the 1929 one, including the rallying part.
I guess the big question is, will we follow the previous curve downward in a few months?

1929 CRASH.jpg

2020.jpg