March is typically an odd month, the transition from the harshness of winter to the promise of spring. This year it’s been the reverse in the worst way in modern memory.
The month began in New York as a normal time with mild weather, the stock market near record levels and unemployment at a half century low.
March ended in a totally unprecedented way with two-thirds of the country confined to their homes, an explosion of illness and death across the U.S., the biggest jump in unemployment on record by a factor of five and $8 trillion of stock market value wiped out.
Congress had just approved a record bailout of everyone, adding $2 trillion of debt to plug massive holes in an economy at a self-imposed standstill. Coronavirus cases had gone from a handful to more than 100,000, making the U.S. suddenly the world leader.
Muddled mixed messages proliferated and fear was rampant. While glimmers of hope popped up here and there like the regular appearance of forsythia, cherry blossoms and daffodils, the gathering storm overshadowed everything as the world braced for the mysterious plaque to strike and dissipate.
