The US economy faces unprecedented economic collapse conditions.
Its dire state exceeds the worst of earlier downturns.
The current one is likely to be protracted—inflicting enormous harm on countless millions of US households and small businesses.
While politicians in Washington dither and dicker for political advantage ahead of November elections, the hardest of hard times in US history is wrecking the lives and welfare of ordinary people.
For the 29th straight week, over one million Americans filed unemployment insurance (UI) claims—840,000 for state UI, another 464,000 for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), 1.3 million in total.
Nothing remotely like what’s ongoing ever happened in the US before.
Since $600 in weekly unemployment benefits expired at end of July, beneficiary US households lost their financial lifeline.
Failure to sustain weekly UI benefits, along with not providing cash-strapped states and local communities with vitally needed financial aid, cost the nation millions of jobs that spending with these funds would have created.
When financial aid is most needed, the Trump regime and Congress failed to deliver it—serving their own interests at the expense of countless millions of ordinary Americans.
On Wednesday, USA reported that “nearly one-quarter of US consumers say they have less than three weeks of financial runway before they run out of cash, according to a weekly survey on Americans’ finances by consumer finance company Credit Karma,” adding, “With just four weeks until the election, 1 in 5 Americans could be out of money by election day.”
According to Credit Karma’s Colleen McCreary, many “Americans…haven’t been in this situation in a long time or have never had to face this reality,” adding, “Many will have to sacrifice and prepare because it could get worse before it gets better.”
Getting better may be a long time coming, maybe years if Depression conditions are protracted.
It’s likely for ordinary Americans in the wake of made-in-the-USA pandemic and economic collapse—a diabolical scheme to benefit privileged interests at the expense of public health and welfare.
As dire as things are this year for most US households, they may worsen in 2021—no matter which right wing of the one-party state controls the White House and/or Congress.
If post-November election violence and chaos occur because of a disputed Trump v. Biden result, economic conditions could worsen.
Economist John Williams explained that US “employment improvement continue(s) to decelerate sharply… while the headline unemployment rate was understated for the seventh straight month.”
Real unemployment is 26.9%—based on how the figure was calculated pre-1990.
The official Labor Department reported 7.86% rate for September grossly distorted reality.
As economic conditions deteriorate further, millions more working-age Americans may be jobless in the coming months.
Last spring, economist Nouriel Roubini predicted a “greater depression of the 2020s,” explaining, “The world has long been drifting into a perfect storm of financial, political, socioeconomic, and environmental risks, all of which are now growing even more acute.”
Instead of responsibly addressing “imbalances and risks pervading the global economy…governments mostly kicked the can down the road, creating major downside risks that made another crisis inevitable.”
In 2020 it arrived, a “Greater Depression (to) follow later in this decade.”
Events are “fuel[ing] a perfect storm…a decade of despair” to follow for ordinary people.
If “a way to survive the coming Greater Depression” isn’t found, they’re be no “happy ending” ahead.
Despite considerable US pump-priming in the 1930s, it took WW II to end the Great Depression.
If global war 3.0 occurs ahead with today’s super-weapons, economic recovery won’t matter if we’re all doomed.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
