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In some places, public officials and private business owners moved with stunning speed. In others, paralyzing hesitancy, defiant bravado or blithe disregard dominated. But by Monday, it was clear everywhere that most of the American economy was grinding to an unparalleled halt and would remain that way for months. California took some of the most aggressive steps to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with San Francisco and its surrounding counties telling residents to “shelter in place” and not leave their homes unless necessary. Primary elections in Ohio, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana were postponed. (Cohen and Tankersley, 3/16)

To understand why the world economy is in grave peril because of the spread of coronavirus, it helps to grasp one idea that is at once blindingly obvious and sneakily profound. One person’s spending is another person’s income. That, in a single sentence, is what the $87 trillion global economy is. That relationship, between spending and income, consumption and production, is at the core of how a capitalist economy works. It is the basis of a perpetual motion machine. (Irwin, 3/17)

Jeffrey Albrecht, who owns three Holiday Inn hotels in southern Ohio, watched as $200,000 disappeared from his books in just three days as people began canceling bookings. The banker handling his mortgages on the properties called. He wanted to know: How much more money could Mr. Albrecht lose before he would miss a loan payment? Mr. Albrecht assured him he could last at least four months. (Hsu and Flitter, 3/16)

New York City business owners are scrambling to figure out how to keep the lights on, even as many are forced to close their doors in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut said that movie theaters, gyms and casinos would close beginning 8 p.m. Monday, while restaurants and bars would be restricted to takeout and delivery. (King, 3/16)

It’s becoming harder by the hour to find the new normal. We need each other in a crisis like this, but we rightly fear congestion. France and Spain have ordered all cafes and restaurants shut down. In New York, it’s the same, with museums and Broadway theaters on hiatus. Mosques have closed in several countries, churches have canceled masses, and the pope prohibited the public from Holy Week celebrations. (Kimmelman, 3/17)

The early signals from the coronavirus crisis point to a scale of damage unseen in the modern U.S. economy: the potential for millions of jobs lost in a single month, a historic and sudden plunge in economic activity across the nation and a pace of sharp market swings not seen since the Great Depression. As the coronavirus outbreak ravages a paralyzed nation, Wall Street suffered another brutal bloodbath on Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average diving around 13 percent in its worst percentage loss since 1987’s “Black Monday” crash. (White, 3/16)

Goldman Sachs Group Inc told customers of its online bank, Marcus, and its Apple credit card on Monday that they can take an extra month to make payments, with no penalty or additional interest, if they are financially stretched due to the coronavirus. Goldman's announcement followed similar moves by lenders like Citigroup, which rolled out hardship assistance to customers last week, and automakers, which offered customers the chance to reschedule car loan payments. (3/16)

Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it would hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the United States to tackle a surge in online orders, as consumers shop heavily fearing the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. super market chains Albertsons, Kroger and Raley's are also looking to hire staff to man busy sections and fulfill online orders. (3/16)

Amazon plans to deploy the new workers to fuel its sprawling e-commerce machine and is raising pay for all employees in fulfillment centers, transportation, stores and deliveries in the U.S. and Canada by $2 an hour through April. In the U.K., it will go up £2 ($2.45) per hour and approximately €2 ($2.24) an hour in many EU countries, according to the company. Amazon now pays $15-per-hour as a starting wage to workers in its fulfillment centers around the U.S. The tech giant’s decision to go on a hiring spree and boost worker pay shows the dual challenge companies such as Amazon face as they seek to meet surging demand for food and key household items and also take care of employees at the front lines of the pandemic. (Mattioli, 3/17)

Dik LaPine has been a postman in Duluth, Minn., for 21 years and prides himself on rarely missing shifts. The 62-year-old carrier’s six-hour route has him stopping into many Duluth businesses and a smattering of homes every day. On Monday, as concerns continued to rise about the spread of the new coronavirus, Mr. LaPine clocked in at about 7 a.m. to prepare his deliveries to banks, real-estate agencies, nail salons, bars and restaurants. The local shopping mall is also on his list. (Stoll, 3/16)

Coronavirus has brought not just a public health threat, but now, a financial one, too, as hundreds of thousands of laid-off Michiganders like Sharon Kubitz — and millions more nationwide — want to know how they will make ends meet. "With the coronavirus, they closed the restaurant for dining in and are just doing takeout," said Kubitz, 54, of Midland. She had been a server at China Palace for more than eight years. "I happened to find out all the restaurants were closing and texted our boss and he said, 'Don't come in.' " (Witsil, 3/16)

Forget predictions that the U.S. economy will enter a recession this year due to the coronavirus pandemic — the UCLA Anderson Forecast says it has happened already. On Monday, the school revised a forecast it issued just last week that stopped short of predicting a recession. The revised version says the economy has already stopped growing and will remain in recession through the end of September. This is the first time in the 68-year history of the forecast that it has been updated before its planned quarterly update. (Darmiento, 3/16)

As restaurants, shops, airlines and factories shut down around the world, from New York to Paris and Madrid, economists are warning that a global recession is no longer a looming threat. It's here. Dire economic data released by China on Monday showed that the country was pummeled by the coronavirus outbreak in January and February. The world's second biggest economy looks unlikely to recover any time soon. (Horowitz, 3/16)