Jamie dimon, chief executive of jpmorgan chase, wrote in his annual letter to shareholders on April 6th that he expected the us economy to face a "severe recession". Mr Dimon said that even in the best of circumstances, "severe recessions and financial stresses similar to the 2008 financial crisis" could be expected.

Former fed chair janet yellen takes a similar view. According to CNBC, ms yellen thinks us GDP could fall by at least 30 per cent in the second quarter, adding that "we have seen worse forecasts". Earlier data from the labor department showed the unemployment rate at 4.4 percent in March, but yellen said it was worse than that -- "if we had timely unemployment statistics, we'd be at 12 or 13 percent and going up.