Posted on 07/25/2022 7:05:10 AM PDT by Red Badger
The White House has just redefined the word “recession” because, well, of course they did. A new GDP report is expected Thursday, which many experts anticipate will show growth declines for a second straight quarter.
Since the White House has just put out an updated definition, the Biden administration can plan on evading the r-word entirely. Or so it thinks.
“While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle,” the White House wrote.
“Instead, both official determinations of recessions and economists’ assessment of economic activity are based on a holistic look at the data—including the labor market, consumer and business spending, industrial production, and incomes,” the blog post continued. “Based on these data, it is unlikely that the decline in GDP in the first quarter of this year—even if followed by another GDP decline in the second quarter—indicates a recession.”
As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Meet the Press Sunday morning: “A common definition of recession is two negative quarters of GDP growth.”
“Many economists expect second quarter GDP to be negative,” she continued. “First quarter GDP was negative.”
Per the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the “[GDP] decreased at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2022.” They also note that “In the fourth quarter of 2021, real GDP increased 6.9 percent.”
As many have speculated, this whole charade feels like a cheap attempt from the Biden administration to get ahead of some politically damaging news later this week.
Even Yellen, who admitted just recently that the Biden administration “was wrong” on inflation forecasts in the past, acknowledged that the standard definition for “recession” is a negative GDP report two quarters in a row. And that the US experienced a negative report in Q1.
Further emphasizing the disconnect between the White House and everyday Americans, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that “more than one-third of Americans believe the economy is now in a recession.”
Even though Yellen argues that while “we’re likely to see some slowing of job creation,” the US is not in a recession. Nor does she believe one will be inevitable.
Additionally, the Biden White House attempts to use unemployment numbers to offset the concerns about negative GDP growth. They state that “although the unemployment rate is not on the committee’s list, the fact that it has held at a historically low 3.6 percent in the past four months also has bearing on the recession question.”
It’s interesting to watch Biden and his administration claim and parrot one thing, while the majority of Americans are feeling and experiencing the total opposite.
Honestly, this happens pretty much every time we’ve gone into recession since the Bush days.
My understanding was there is some economic council made up of academic economists who actually “declare” what everyone knows.
The two negatives in as row is a wall street and financial rule of thumb.
No one “wants” as recession. And the pols will always try to deflect the label being pinned on them. In this case, with Biden flailing around, the “two in a row” is going to get slapped on him pretty quickly.
The administration denying this is as old as administrations. While I despise Old Joe, this tactic has been pulled buy Dems and Reps alike over the years.
Everyone knows that...lol
No doubt that’s coming from Ron Klain, a real life Wesley Mouch if ever there was one.
The fuel prices are going to swing back in the fall. School travel, business travel, and harvest expenses will eat up any surplus.
We will be around $4.50 a gallon by Halloween.
Two quarters with negative growth
We are already in the recession
Just wait until the end of this quarter, Q3, at the end of September, a little over a month before the mid-terms, and they will say THREE quarters of negative GDP is not a ‘recession’.
OR
If there is positive GDP, they will declare that Biden’s policies have SAVED US FROM THE RECESSION that we were NOT in....................😜
Red, ease up opn these poor stupid lefty Democrats. Like so many other aspects of their destruction of America, they are “reimagining” recession.
A Re-imagined recession is not so bad! ( sarc.)
Dorothy the Democrat is still following the rabbit down that bunny hole in order to meet the Mad Hatter (Nancy Pelosi) , The Queen of Hearts ( Kamala Harris), and the Cheshire Cat ( Joe Biden).
Dorothy?
or Alice?
down the rabbit hole?
You’re splitting Hares.................
No doubt about that.
They will parade out their smug spokespeople this week telling us that which we can see, feel, and taste is really ice cream. And we should enjoy it.
Some way, some how they will attempt to blame Trump for this mess.................... and it will blow up in their faces.............
Who knew that economies can now be Identity-Fluid.
“Food challenged”
A recession is not a recession.
A vaccine is not a vaccine.
High prices are normal.
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