Several months, or was it years ago; when the coronavirus began its spread across the U.S., several bullish economists were predicting a “V-shaped” recovery, meaning the expected economic recession would be deep but short-lived. The subsequent bounce-back would be extremely strong so that the 2020 recession would be a mere blip on the chart. That consensus opinion was quickly replaced by talk of a “U-shaped” or even an “L-shaped” recovery, with the economy reeling for months if not years, as the number of deaths escalated along with the unemployment filings as the U.S. economy remained shut down.
Now it’s starting to appear that maybe the doomsayers were a bit too hasty in their gloomy prognostications. While it’s far too early to predict how things will eventually play out, the V-shaped recovery may actually be a more likely outcome than the more pessimistic scenarios. Certainly, the most recent economic reports, from both the government and the private sector, are already showing a nascent rebound even as many key states – like New York, California, and Illinois – remain largely in lockdown mode and only recently started to open up. At the same time, some previous forecasts are being shown to have been overly bearish.
Probably the biggest surprise to the upside was last Friday’s May employment report, which showed the economy adding 2.5 million jobs, a far cry from the consensus forecast of a loss of 7.7 million, and April’s loss of nearly 21 million jobs. “These improvements in the labor market reflected a limited resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it,” the Labor Department said. Continue reading "Is The V-Shaped Recovery Back On?"
