COVID-19’s economic wallop

People stand in front of a wall of monitors.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the opening bell on Tuesday in New York.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP via Getty Images

To say the global economy is anxious right now would be an understatement.

Monday, trading on the U.S. stock market stopped just ten minutes after opening, when steep losses triggered a stop-gap measure meant to prevent a free fall. Tuesday, several American airlines announced deep cuts to their domestic and international schedules and downgraded their previous earnings outlook. Hundreds of other companies, from Starbucks to Amazon to Apple, have issued warnings that their Q1 financial reports will be dire.

How did a health crisis become an economic threat?

Chris Farrell, senior economics contributor at Marketplace, took a look at how COVID-19 is infecting the health of the global economy. In addition to millions of people who have contacted the virus and the thousands who have died, will the virus also take down the world’s financial systems?

Guests:

  • Desmond Lachman, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

  • Betsey Stevenson is a professor of public policy and economics at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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