Thursday's GDP numbers set a record for the biggest plunge in activity ever recorded, falling almost 33 percent in the second quarter.
By comparison, the worst quarter during the 2008 financial crisis was an 8.4 percent drop in the fourth quarter.
Despite the dismal milestone, the figure was better than some analysts had predicted, noted Tyler Goodspeed, acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
"Certainly in today's data we did see what we've been suspecting for months now, which is that in the second quarter of 2020, the United States and indeed global economies experienced the largest adverse macroeconomic shock in decades," Goodspeed told Cheddar.
Also announced Thursday, 1.43 million unemployment claims were filed last week, up from 1.42 million the week before. More than 54 million Americans have filed in the past 18 weeks.
Continuing claims saw an increase as well. There were 17 million continued claims for this week, up from 16 million last week. However, the number is significantly lower than the record high of 25 million in early May.
While the numbers are extreme, Goodspeed said the federal government was quick to react to the coronavirus-driven shutdowns, never before seen at such a scale.
"We've also seen in this data that this shock was of unprecedented scale and speed, but also that the response of the United States federal government was unprecedented in its scale and speed."
Goodspeed noted disposable personal income saw an increase of $1.5 trillion and the savings rate in the second quarter went up about 45 percent.
"That does certainly bode well for consumer spending moving forward, as consumer spending accounts for approximately 70 percent of the U.S. economy," he said.
Markets were mixed Thursday afternoon after the morning announcement.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
