Author: Sam Buisman

The US economy shrank at an annual rate of nearly 5% last quarter, the steepest plunge since the 2008 recession.

According to Reuters, US gross domestic product declined at an annual rate of 4.8% in the first quarter of 2020, reflecting the monstrous economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus. This decline ends a record 11-year-long streak of economic expansion in the US.

However, since the first quarter only captures the beginning of social distancing in late March, experts predict that the US economy will shrink at a record rate in the second quarter of 2020 as state economies remain closed.

Many Americans are already feeling this economic pain, as massive protests in Wisconsin and other states have cropped up in opposition to coronavirus-related economic restrictions.

Still, polls show that the majority of Americans support these restrictions as a method of combatting the coronavirus and are more concerned about the threat to public health of lifting these measures than the economic impact of continuing them.