5% of the entire population of the United States -- not just labor force, the ENTIRE population -- has filed for unemployment in the past 3 weeks.

It's pretty, uh, revealing that the policy response -- such as it is -- to all of this is the Fed just injecting liquidity into the market.

Remember how orthodox economists have been flummoxed about why wages are stagnant when productivity has been increasing?

I predict we're going to see "We can't figure out why injecting liquidity didn't bring down the unemployment rate!" takes from Very Serious Economists soon.

ADDENDUM: As a couple of people have pointed out in the replies, the 17 million figure is an undercount.

It doesn't include people who tried but were unable to file for unemployment because of overwhelmed systems.

This is just an anecdote, but if generally true, hell, we're talking potentially another 6 million who are backlogged.

In addition to future layoffs! https://twitter.com/sarahljaffe/status/1248231796430573574

And this is just the beginning! All the liquidity injection in the world isn't going to stop companies from massive layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.

My general read is that professional-class types haven't felt the full weight of the economic crisis yet, because they've been able to do their jobs from home.

But make no mistake -- that's coming.