Dire economic consequences seem to be materializing in a shorter time span than nine decades ago The shock to the global economy from Covid-19 has been both faster and more severe than the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and even the Great Depression.
In those two previous episodes, stock markets collapsed by 50% or more, credit markets froze up, massive bankruptcies followed, unemployment rates soared above 10%, and GDP contracted at an annualized rate of 10% or more.
But all of this took around three years to play out. In the current crisis, similarly dire macroeconomic and financial outcomes have materialized in three weeks. [E]very component of aggregate demand—consumption, capital spending, exports—is in unprecedented free fall.