A recent New York Times article was entitled: “Scary Times for U.S. Companies Spell Boom for Restructuring Advisers.” Another earlier New York Times article was entitled: Businesses Face a New Coronavirus Threat: Shrinking Access to Credit.” One just has to look around urban centers and rural areas where small and medium businesses have been forced to close to see the economic results. Hoteliers, retail outlets, cruise lines, restaurants, event sponsors and mortgage lenders are among those suddenly short on cash, with travel and outdoor activity at a standstill and unemployment soaring. Only essential-deemed enterprises and services can remain open on a restricted basis, hardly enough to maintain a society’s economic engine and GDP growth.
A Financial Post article is entitled: “The global oil market is broken, drowning in crude nobody needs.” It goes on to note that the next stage of the oil market’s meltdown will be widespread production shutdowns — and it’s already starting to happen. As the article also notes, refineries are becoming idle, the pipeline system will soon grind to a halt and storage tanks daily are being filled to the brim. As we know, the global airline industry is grounded, countless businesses and factories are shuttered and billions of people, having been forced to stay home, are no longer driving across the country.
Despite governments pouring aid packages into the economy, personal and corporate bankruptcies are already expected to significantly increase should the pandemic last several more months. We are a consumer-driven economy and consumer consumption is expected to remain low for months to come, especially with the extremely high levels of predicted unemployment and the average family having to struggle just to make ends meet.
We can expect that in the near future things will get worst than better anytime soon. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, now estimates that the pandemic could cause between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the U.S. As of today in Canada, there are over 3,620 confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases and just over 60 fatalities. Health authorities believe that both countries have yet to reach their pandemic peak, expected in the next few weeks. Most governments have extended the mandated isolation periods and travel restrictions into and beyond this April. Not knowing how long exactly that these measures will be in place makes it all the more difficult to make economic predictions. All we know for sure is that economic growth will most likely be negative for the coming year and the human toll will continue to be great. All one can do is take care, be safe and self-isolate wherever and whenever possible. Working together as communities and families, we can all get through this.
FROLITICKS 
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