The Great Health Crisis

COVID-19 is a once in a century event that the world has not experienced since the Spanish Flu of 1918. Fortunately for the United States, we have entered this public health crisis with a strong economy and banking system. The stock market and the economy will start to recover as soon as the number of new cases declines sharply and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the likely development of therapeutic treatments by the end of the summer. Only when we have a vaccine, which is estimated to be one to two years away, can the economy fully recover. This Great Health Crisis is similar to a natural disaster such as an earthquake that has temporarily shut everything down,

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Congress are providing the necessary financial resources to permit the economy to survive until it is safe for economic activity to resume.  This may take several weeks or months. The duration of this public health crisis is not known. But The Great Health Crisis is definitely not another Great Depression that lasted 12 years nor The Great Recession which were financial crises resulting from a weak banking system.