via MarketWatch
‘No one should think the government can wave a wand an all of sudden the economy is anything like it was before this happened.’
That is billionaire Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft MSFT, -0.02% and noted philanthropist during a 26-minute interview on CNBC on Thursday.
Gates, who boasts a net worth of $103.4 billion, according to Forbes (making him the second wealthiest man in the world behind Amazon.com’s AMZN, -0.32% Jeff Bezos) has been one of the most vocal critics of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic which has ravaged the domestic economy and brought most of the world’s business and personal activity to a screeching halt.
In a March 31 op-ed in the Washington Post, the tech luminary advised more stringent closures to mitigate the spread of the deadly viral outbreak, saying “shutdown anywhere means shutdown everywhere.”
Why This Downturn Will Be as Bad than the Great Depression: Nestmann
Fed Bullard suggests the unemployment rate may hit 30% for the second quarter of this year, with GDP dropping a stunning 50%. By comparison, in 1933 – considered the low point of the Great Depression – about 25% of American workers were unemployed.
The Liquidity Crisis Is Quickly Becoming A Global Solvency Crisis
The liquidity crisis is starting to become a solvency crisis as more companies realize they will lack the cash flow to sustain operations and fund debt obligations, while banks are starting to feel the hundreds of billions in revolver drawdowns.