Global Economic Crisis

As the coronavirus ravages our planet, decimating economies large and small in its wake, it distinguishes itself from the 2007-09 global financial crisis in this way: it is an economic disaster brought on by a health crisis, as opposed to the GFC, where economies were harmed by a major financial crisis. However, this distinction will soon vanish, for the following reasons.

The enforced shutdown of the global economy created by the health response to the Covid-19 panic has led to massive spikes in unemployment, at a faster pace than even during the Great Depression of the 1930s, while businesses large and small are shuttered, severely constricting activity, while households are on the verge of insolvency. To prevent complete economic and societal collapse, sovereigns have launched emergency stimulus measures, at unprecedented levels of deficit spending, typically in the range of 10 to 15 % of GDP, as in the United States with Congress recently passing a 2 trillion dollar stimulus bill (representing ten percent of pre-crisis GDP).

However, with millions of workers now jobless and corporate activity at a near standstill, tax revenue from personal and corporate income, as well as capital gains, will shrink precipitously.

Before the onset of the coronavirus crisis, the U.S. economy, supposedly operating at its best level of performance, and with unemployment at a record low, was still requiring an annual budget deficit of one trillion dollars to fund federal government operating costs. Factoring everything we now know, the actual U.S. government deficit for the current fiscal year will be substantially higher than 20 %.

Should large developed economies such as the United States run annual deficits in the range of 20 percent of a shrinking GDP, notwithstanding debt monetization by the Federal Reserve and other central banks, a sovereign debt crisis of unparalleled dimensions will complement the Covid-19 pandemic in its negative impact on the global economy, and endure long after a vaccine is developed for coronavirus.

The increasingly likely sovereign debt crisis makes it more certain that the global economic crisis will not only be long-lasting, but will manifest the characteristics of an economic depression as opposed to a less virulent recession. Furthermore, long-term monetary measures a sovereign debt crisis will compel policymakers to implement will heighten the risk of severe global inflation, leading to a period of prolonged stagflation.

The coronavirus pandemic is not only a public health emergency of massive proportions; the response by governments worldwide has created staggering economic contraction, leading to unprecedented growth in unemployment. Initial data indicates that countries that previously had low single digit unemployment rates are now, within a period of a few weeks, seeing double-digit unemployment statistics, with no end in sight to further hemorrhaging of jobs.

Policymakers have concluded that sever measures are necessary to contain the coronavirus pandemic; shutting down all but the most essential industries , stay-at-home directives and social distancing. This has all led to unprecedented demand destruction, resulting in massive growth in the ranks of the jobless.

The world is increasingly stuck between a rock and hard place. The Covid-19 outbreak is proving so virulent, the absence of desperate measures enacted by policymakers will result in overwhelming and collapsing the public health system, resulting in massive death. What is occurring in Italy reflects this.

On the other hand, demand destruction on the scale we are witnessing will exacerbate the Global Economic Crisis now unfolding, rivaling the Great Depression in its intensity. This will implode tax revenues, ironically also leading to underfunding and ultimately collapsing public health institutions. The short-term fiscal response by governments will undoubtedly bring on the largest public debt crisis in economic history. In other words, the sovereign cannot indefinitely write checks to the hordes of unemployed , whose number will grow along with the victims of the pandemic.

There is a real possibility of mass death due to the impact of covid-19. It also must be recognized that long-term double-digit unemployment risks undermining social and political order, also leading to mass death through social disorder and massive violence by an increasingly desperate population.

The latest data released by Eurostat shows that in the final quarter of 2012, the Eurozone area’s combined GDP contracted by 0.6 percent. This follows a previous quarter of negative growth, reflecting the fact that the Eurozone is confronting both a staggering debt crisis and an economic recession simultaneously. The Q4 data shows that even Germany’s  economy, the strongest in the Eurozone, also contracted.

Negative growth will only exacerbate the Eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis. With the worst afflicted economies dependent on massive loans from German taxpayers and the IMF, the continuing negative economic trends demonstrate how improbable the calculations of the monetary union ‘s policymakers are in their gamble that they can miraculously restore economic growth while solving the Eurozone’s debt crisis. The latest Eurostat data confirms the insoluble conundrum confronting the politicians  in the Eurozone.

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In an interview with CNBC, the bestselling author of  “The Black Swan,” Nassim Taleb, described the current economic environment as being significantly deteriorated from 2008, when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. In his gloomy assessment of the global economic crisis, Taleb said, “We had less debt cumulatively (two years ago), and more people employed. Today, we have more risk in the system, and a smaller tax base.”

According to Nassim Taleb, the core economic and financial problem afflicting major economies is a saturation of debt, both public and private. The current Eurozone and UK debt crisis is a manifestation of the age of austerity that lies before us. The United States and UK share the debt crisis afflicting Eurozone economies, however policymakers are still addicted to deficits even in the current critical economic environment. Taleb warned that a debt crisis could not be countered by taking on even more debt, a policy response he compared with giving more alcoholic beverage to an alcoholic.

Nassim Taleb also pointed out that toxic assets on bank balance sheets were as severe a problem now as two years ago. While acknowledging that governments have used taxpayer money to take some toxic assets off bank balance sheets, he pointed out that further degradation of remaining bank assets due to deteriorating economic metrics meant that banks were as fragile today as they were in 2008.

The British pound sank like a stone as the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, issued a grim warning during testimony before the UK Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee. The central fiscal problem is the £178 billion annual deficit incurred by Gordon Brown’s government in the midst of the global economic crisis.

Mervyn King indicated that the Bank of England will have to continue with quantitative easing in the face of the massive government deficits, sending negative signals to investors as to the stability of the nation’s currency. He warned that both the current government, and a likely new government to succeed Brown after the next British general election, must send a clear message to the markets that they have a credible plan to significantly reduce the nation’s fiscal deficits.

I think the current breed of politicians, in the UK and elsewhere, haven’t a clue how to address the massive, unsustainable deficits that plague virtually every major and advanced economy. Which means that it is only a matter of time before the UK, and then the US, follow in the footsteps of Greece down the road of national insolvency.