Coronavirus

Our Loss is China’s Gain

Written by SK Ashby

Even though the coronavirus pandemic is far from over and is currently surging across North America and Europe, global wealth has rebounded from a slump earlier this year according to Credit Suisse Group , but that is not universally true.

Areas of the world who've responded to the pandemic in the worst way have seen their wealth decline while some countries have seen their wealth increase.

Household wealth in China has increased by almost as much as ours has decreased because of Trump's disastrous non-response to the pandemic.

The “main outlier” is North America, the report says, where the economy is hobbled by the “continued weakness due to the high prevalence of Covid-19” in the U.S. The region’s wealth per adult is projected to drop 5% this year, and remain near that level in 2021. [...]

Only China and India saw gains in household wealth in the first half of the year, growing by 4.4% and 1.6%, respectively. Latin America suffered the most, with a 13% plunge, as currency devaluations aggravated losses in gross domestic product.

Credit Suisse’s chief investment officer says China is the "clear winner" of all this.

Trump and many others Republicans would probably cite this as evidence that China intentionally unleashed the pandemic, but that is a conspiracy theory they've conjured to duck responsibility for their own actions. Whatever China may have been initially responsible for early this year has long since become our own responsibility. China isn't forcing Americans the recklessly spit in each other's faces at bars and MAGA boat parades. China isn't responsible for conservative lawsuits against mask mandates and other virus control policies.

It was Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, not China, who appeared on national television over the weekend where he said they are "not going to control the pandemic."

The top 1% of the world, with more than $1 million each, hold 43% of global wealth, the report concludes. Meanwhile, about 2.8 billion adults have less than $10,000, collectively owning just 1.4% of global wealth.

Female workers, millennials and minorities were hit the most by the pandemic, mainly because of their high representation in businesses such as restaurants, hotels and retail that have been badly affected. Millennials, which also suffered the repercussions from the financial crisis, and the next post-Covid generation will have to deal with reduced economic activity and globalization, as well as discouraged travel, Credit Suisse said.

I'm a transgender millennial woman, so I'm pretty much fucked. Ha!

It's not exactly funny, but I couldn't held up laugh in hindsight that Trump thought he was going to conquer China with his trade war. We have nothing to show for it except literally a t-shirt, at least in my case. I had to buy new clothes.