Stockmarket v Economy: What You Need to Know | The Economist

American stockmarkets have enjoyed a record-breaking streak, even though the country’s economy faces the deepest recession in living memory. Why is stockmarket performance so seemingly cut off from current events, and what does this tell us about how the economy works?

The Great Depression after the 1929 Financial Crash | Impossible Peace | Timeline

A look at the international upset and devastation caused by the global depression; unemployment, hyperinflation, despair are everywhere as people try to survive.

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Richard Wolff: The Crash Is Coming! What to Watch For

Family Fortunes of Wealthy Increase as Super-rich Ride Coronavirus Storm

THE GUARDIAN: UBS says portfolios of 77% of richest investors are performing in line with or above target

More than three-quarters of the world’s richest people have reported an increase in their already vast family fortunes, despite the economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Research into the family offices of the super-rich found that the vast majority were able to “ride out 2020’s storm in financial markets”, while many less wealthy people have lost their jobs and seen the value of their savings and pensions collapse.

The report by the Swiss bank UBS found that 77% of the richest families – who had average fortunes of $1.6bn (£1.25bn) – had seen their investment portfolios “perform in line with, or above, targets during one of the most volatile moments in the history of financial markets”. » | Rupert Neate, Wealth correspondent | Thursday, July 16, 2020

Super-rich Call for Higher Taxes on Wealthy to Pay for Covid-19 Recovery

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Group of 83 wealthy individuals demands ‘immediate, substantial and permanent’ higher taxes ‘on people like us’

A group of 83 of the world’s richest people have called on governments to permanently increase taxes on them and other members of the wealthy elite to help pay for the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

The super-rich members, including Ben and Jerry’s ice cream co-founder Jerry Greenfield and Disney heir Abigail Disney, called on “our governments to raise taxes on people like us. Immediately. Substantially. Permanently”.

“As Covid-19 strikes the world, millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world,” the millionaires said in a letter shared with the Guardian. “No, we are not the ones caring for the sick in intensive care wards. We are not driving the ambulances that will bring the ill to hospitals. We are not restocking grocery store shelves or delivering food door to door.

“But we do have money, lots of it. Money that is desperately needed now and will continue to be needed in the years ahead, as our world recovers from this crisis.” » | Rupert Neate, Wealth correspondent | Monday, July 13, 2020

Islamic Economics & Finance: Wisdom behind Prohibition of Interest

Brace Yourself for Trump's Great Recession

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich warns of the looming Great Depression brought on by Trump and the GOP's refusal to act to mitigate the damage wrought by this pandemic.

Trump and businesses demanded America "reopen" to revive the economy. But we’ve reopened too soon, before COVID-19 is under control. So we're needing to close or partly close again, which will prolong the economic downturn and wreak even more havoc on millions of Americans’ livelihoods. The wave of evictions and foreclosures in the next 2 months will be unlike anything America has experienced since the Great Depression. And the expiration of expanded unemployment benefits at the end of July will leave unemployed Americans with a 60% income reduction and no stimulus check to fall back on. Meanwhile, state and local governments are forced to gut vital public services like low-income housing and health care — even as over 16.2 million households have lost employer-provided health insurance.

So what’s Trump’s and Mitch McConnell’s response to this looming catastrophe?

Do nothing.

This is lunacy. The priority must be getting control over this pandemic and helping Americans survive it physically and financially. Extra unemployment benefits must be extended. The HEROES Act must be signed into law. Moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures must be extended. If it’s necessary to go back to sheltering in place to contain this pandemic, we must be willing to do so. This shouldn't be controversial. It's the bare minimum of what our government must do to prevent an even worse economic and human catastrophe.

Anything less is indefensible.