Alternative Visions - 2nd Covid Wave & the US Economy

Evidence grows that a 2nd covid-19 wave is now emerging in the US, focused in the south and southwest ‘red’ states. Pandemics always have 2nd waves (even 3rds). Second waves tend to be worse than first. Will this 2nd wave exceed the impact of the first on the coastal ‘blue’ states, now that widespread reopening of the US economy is underway, especially in the ‘red’ states? Dr. Rasmus discusses the transmission mechanisms and channels by which Covid-19 has been impacting the US economic contraction. Also, how causal forces independent of the virus have begun to take effect in the US economy now exacerbating the general economic crisis. How Covid-19 causes interact with independent economic dynamics to worsen the economic instability. Why the June ‘recovery’ is especially weak and tentative and why a further economic relapse is inevitable, sometime in the fall or right after the November US elections. What’s happening with the four major areas of the US economy: household consumption, business investment, exports, and government spending and why recent fiscal stimulus by Congress and monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve are not working well. (check out Dr. Rasmus’s latest blog post, ‘The 2nd Wave & the US Recession’, at jackrasmus.com. Follow his daily updates on his twitter feed at @drjackrasmus).