Posted on 07/28/2022 6:19:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Thursday's GDP numbers indicated a decline of 0.9 percent, pointing to a recession, considering the economy also declined by 1.6 percent last quarter. President Joe Biden and many others in his administration have denied we're even in a recession and have instead pointed to a different, more vague definition based on data from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Chief among the recession-deniers includes Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who gave remarks on Thursday.
TUNE IN: @SecYellen hosts a press conference to discuss America’s recovery over the last 18 months from the depths of the pandemic, and the resilience of America’s workers, businesses, and economy in the face of international headwinds. https://t.co/EjN1BxTnzr— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) July 28, 2022
Instead of a recession, Yellen claimed during her remarks that the economy is "transitioning."
"This report indicates an economy that is transitioning to more steady, sustainable growth," she said. "That's to be expected given how rapidly the economy grew when it was recovering from the pandemic and all of those job losses."
Yellen also used problematic language when talking about inflation last year, when she claimed inflation would be "temporary" and was "transitory."
During a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in May of last year, Yellen said, "My judgment right now is that the recent inflation that we have seen will be temporary. It's not something that's endemic."
In June of last year, Yellen was quoted singing a much different tune on inflation. From The Washington Post at the time:
Yellen, Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell and other top policymakers insist the price pops are temporary and that the current uptick doesn’t reflect a dangerously persistent new trend.
...
“We have in recent months seen some inflation, and we — at least on a year-over-year basis — will continue, I believe through the rest of the year, to see higher inflation rates, maybe around 3 percent,” Yellen said following a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers in London. “But I personally believe that this represents transitory factors.”
Ultimately, Yellen was forced to walk back her remarks and admit she was wrong. Last December, she acknowledged, "I'm ready to retire the word transitory," and said, "I can agree that that hasn't been an apt description of what we're dealing with."
She made an even more embarrassing admission earlier this year. "I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy... that I, at the time, didn't fully understand," she claimed, despite being the Treasury Secretary and having previously served on the Federal Reserve, including as its chair.
Other economists, though, including Larry Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, warned that the American Rescue Plan Act would lead to inflation, which it did.
When promoting the NBER definition of a recession, as she did earlier in the week, including while on NBC's "Meet the Press," Yellen engaged in quite the tone-deaf claims about the American people.
"Most economists and most Americans have a similar definition of recession — substantial job losses and mass layoffs, businesses shutting down, private sector activity slowing considerably, family budgets [that] are under immense strain, a broad-based weakening of our economy," she claimed. "That is not what we're seeing right now. When you look at the economy, job creation is continuing, household finances remain strong. Consumers are spending and businesses are growing."
Despite what Yellen may claim in her remarks, the polls are not on her side.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released on Thursday, shortly before the GDP report came in, shows that 50 percent of Americans say we're in a recession already, while just 9 percent say we're in a recovery.
An IBD/TIPP poll from earlier this month found that 58 percent of respondents think we're in a recession.
Multiple polls reflect that Americans think we're already in a recession, actually, and that they even did last month.
This includes a poll from The Economist/YouGov, which found that 56 percent of respondents thought we were already in a recession. A survey from MagnifyMoney conducted around the same time found that 70 percent of respondents thought the United States was headed toward a recession, with 59 percent predicting it would come within the next six months.
The American people continue to give President Biden low marks on the economy. According to RealClearPolitics (RCP), 32 percent approve of his handling of this top issue, while 63.7 percent disapprove.
One particularly memorably bad poll from earlier this month included a CNBC poll, which showed just 1 percent of respondents believe the economy is "excellent," while 10 percent believe it's "good."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvk_uLnv4uo
Happy Days Are Here Again song.
Biden’s boom can’t be stopped.
The buying power of my money is getting reduced fast by Biden inflation.
Also, I tend to boycott products whose prices have shot up unjustifiably.
The economy is “transitioning”. And of course we have to show respect and dignity to those who are “transitioning”.
So any insults directed towards the economy will not be tolerated!
CC
Yellen points to the NBER because that’s who we have used for decades as the referee for calling turns in the business cycle. Maybe all the way back to their founding 100 years ago.
The definition of recession that the NBER is currently using is the same one that was in effect when Trump was president. It hasn’t changed.
This focus on whether or not we are in a recession is beside the point anyway. The economy is terrible and everyone knows it. We are experiencing inflation at a rate last seen when Carter was president.
There was no recession during Carter’s presidency but anyone who lived through it remembers that the economy was terrible all the same.
There are many places in this country where housing prices have become absurd.
Didn’t she admit recently that she minimized the extend of the inflation or something to that effect?... When everybody with some intelligence was warning about out of control inflation.
The elites act like we don’t understand economics....
Even Orwell understated our reality.
“We are experiencing inflation at a rate last seen when Carter was president.”
Inflation for a time was at a higher level than under Carter.
I’m still seeing price rises, but not as frequent.
Walmart recently raised the price of their $1 loaf of bread to $1.47.
Cheez-its in the past year or so went from $2.82 to $3.18 to $3.68.
There are going to be employment consequences after the buying power of American retirees is reduced by about 30%.
Relax the Titanic is unsinkable
I don’t know why anybody would pay around half a million for a middle class type of house in Mosquitoburg & Gnatville, Florida.
Apparatchik Yellen is merely stating the official line of bovine stuff.
My neighbor still has a job…
The Economy identifies as robust, so we should embrace and celebrate its self-applied moniker?
The supply chain part of the inflation could ease at some point.
The part caused by Biden’s war on fossil fuel will remain unless we get a major change in government.
She said inflation was “Transitory” too.
Walking back is no problem for the democrats. Google just scrubs the remarks or it is claimed that it is ‘mispoke’ stuff.
No sweat. Baghdad Bob is their hero.
(She prob has a photo of him enshrined in her inner sanctuary office).
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