What to Know About Recessions, as Virus Threatens One

The rapidly spreading coronavirus threatens the health of world economies, too. The odds of a U.S. recession within the next year are at the highest level since the end of the last downturn in 2009. Germany, the economic engine of Europe, and the U.K. were both on the precipice of a downturn even before the virus struck, with 0% growth in the fourth quarter of 2019. China, the world’s second-largest economy and the place where the pandemic originated, is likely to have contracted in the first qu