Essential Geopolitics: Global Slowdown and U.S. Unemployment

Published: April 16, 2020, 4:19 p.m.

In this special episode of Stratfor's Essential Geopolitics podcast, host Fred Burton speaks to Michael Monderer. The IMF predicts the global economy will be in decline by about 2-3% this year - IF the coronavirus that has locked things down is contained in the first half.


"If the virus were to continue throughout the summer or come back next year, unemployment would hit 1/3 of the global workforce," says Monderer, "It's not out of the question that the US unemployment rate could go to over 20 or 30%. Those numbers are people. We've never had a downturn this sharp and this fast. Even the Great Depression, when there was a 25% percent loss of output , took 3 or 4 years to develop."