It's official: The economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic is the worst on record. Gross domestic product plunged 9.5 percent in the second quarter (that's an even scarier sounding -32.9 percent on an annualized basis), by far the biggest drop in the 70+ year we've been keeping track. It's no mystery what caused the drop: We shut down the economy. The idea was that by pressing "pause" on normal life -- and by providing trillions of dollars in government support -- we could get the virus under control, then enjoy a rapid rebound once the threat passed. Well, we got the shutdown. But we didn't get the virus under control, and we didn't get the rebound. Another 2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, the latest sign that the economy is nowhere close to recovered. And now extra unemployment benefits are about to expire for tens of millions of people. For more on what went wrong, and where we go from here, see my coverage in The New York Times. #economy #GDP #unemployment …see more