What happened to the stock market today?
Ongoing fears of economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak mixed with falling oil prices sent stocks plunging Monday, causing the markets to halt trading early in the morning. The spreading disease has led to Wall Street’s weakest performances since the 2008 financial crisis.
To explain what happened, Megan Greene, economist and senior fellow at Harvard University, spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal about the acceleration of the illness and its impact on global supply and demand. They also discussed how these events could play out long term.
“It depends entirely on epidemiology,” Greene said. “And none of us really have answers there. So it really depends on how far this virus spreads.”
Click the audio player above to hear the interview.
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COVID-19 Economy FAQs
What’s the latest on more pandemic relief aid from the federal government?
President Donald Trump first tweeted that he’s cutting off negotiations on big pandemic relief funding until after the election. Then, later the same day, he called for piecemeal stimulus, including $1,200 pandemic checks for families to be signed by the president and arrive before election day. So, some whiplash here. Karen Petrou, managing partner of the Washington-based economic consulting firm Federal Financial Analytics, said “the president is always negotiating. I mean, he’s just trying to make a deal. That’s the only way I can explain this.”
Are people still waiting for unemployment payments?
Yes. There is no way to know exactly how many people have been waiting for months and are still not getting unemployment, because states do not have a good system in place for tracking that kind of data, according to Andrew Stettner of The Century Foundation. But by his own calculations, only about 60% of people who have applied for benefits are currently receiving them. That means there are millions still waiting. Read more here on what they are doing about it.
What’s going to happen to retailers, especially with the holiday shopping season approaching?
A report out Tuesday from the accounting consultancy BDO USA said 29 big retailers filed for bankruptcy protection through August. And if bankruptcies continue at that pace, the number could rival the bankruptcies of 2010, after the Great Recession. For retailers, the last three months of this year will be even more critical than usual for their survival as they look for some hope around the holidays.
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