Stephen Green writes at PJMedia.com about the latest economic sleight of hand from the Biden administration.
When is a recession not a recession? When Presidentish Joe Biden says it ain’t, Jack.
Axios reported that White House economic advisors on Thursday moved the goalposts on what a recession is. The traditional definition of a recession is two or more quarters of economic shrinkage, but the Biden administration argues that “by most measures,” according to Axios, “the world’s largest economy remains comfortably in expansion mode.”
That’s why the White House “is seeking to preempt heightened recession chatter that would accompany two quarters of shrinking GDP.”
By changing the accepted definition.
Citing a “holistic look at the data,” the White House Council of Economic Advisors claims that “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.”
That’s from CEA chair Cecilia Rouse and member Jared Bernstein.
The economy shrank in the first quarter of this year at an annualized rate of 1.6%. The Atlanta Fed’s growth tracker “sees the second-quarter running at negative 2.1%.”
So not only are we technically already in a recession (it won’t be official until next week), the contraction appears to be accelerating rather than easing off — just like that “transitory” inflation.
Economist Art Laffer — one of the architects of Ronald Reagan’s boom times — told Fox News this week that “Recession ‘is here’ and will ‘last for awhile.’”
Most Americans think we’re already in a recession. …
… Can barely put gas in the car? Sick of being told by the secretary of Transportation to spend $60 grand you don’t have on a Tesla? Steak is now a rare treat (no pun intended)? You’re wondering how many extra years you’ll have to work to get your 401K back to where it needs to be?
These are just some of the pains Americans feel under the Biden administration, but the administration wants us to believe everything is hunky-dory.
