Brooke Singman, Megan Henney – Fox Business July 28, 2022
President Biden said the United States “is not in a recession,” despite Thursday’s GDP report, saying it is “no surprise that the economy is slowing down” amid inflation.
The U.S. economy shrank in the spring for the second consecutive quarter, meeting the criteria for a recession as record-high inflation and higher interest rates forced consumers and businesses to pull back on spending.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, shrank by 0.9% on an annualized basis in the three-month period from April through June, the Commerce Department said in its first reading of the data on Thursday. Refinitiv economists expected the report to show the economy had expanded by 0.5%
“Coming off of last year’s historic economic growth — and regaining all the private sector jobs lost during the pandemic crisis — it’s no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation,” Biden said Thursday in a statement. “But even as we face historic global challenges, we are on the right path and we will come through this transition stronger and more secure.”
Biden touted the job market, saying it “remains historically strong, with unemployment at 3.6% and more than 1 million jobs created in the second quarter alone.”
“Consumer spending is continuing to grow,” he said.
Biden said he met with the chairman of SK Group from Korea earlier this week, saying it is “just one of the companies investing more than $200 billion in American manufacturing since I took office, powering a historic recovery in American manufacturing.”
“My economic plan is focused on bringing inflation down, without giving up all the economic gains we have made,” he said. “Congress has an historic chance to do that by passing the CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act without delay.”
Biden’s comments came just days after he said the U.S. was “not coming into recession.”
“We’re not coming into recession, in my view,” Biden said Monday. “I don’t think we’re going to — God willing — I don’t think we’re going to see a recession.”
Recessions typically refer to two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
But in a blog post on July 21, the White House Council of Economic Advisers attempted to change the definition of a recession, saying that two consecutive quarters of falling GDP doesn’t mean the country is in a recession.
“What is a recession? 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 blog post states.
Citing figures from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the post states that their “recession indicator variables” have “exhibited strong growth in the U.S. economy since the start of the pandemic, and have continued to expand through the first half of this year.”
Thursday’s GDP report revealed back-to-back declines in growth, bringing the economy to the technical criteria for a recession, which requires a “significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months.”
Still, the NBER — the semi-official arbiter — may not confirm it immediately as it typically waits up to a year to call it.
The NBER has also stressed that it relies on more data than GDP in determining whether there’s a recession, such as unemployment and consumer spending, which remained strong in the first six months of the year. It also takes into consideration the depth of any decline in economic activity.
“My economic plan…”
There’s no point having a plan when you intend to kill everyone.
“I don’t think we’re going to — God willing — I don’t think we’re going to see a recession.”
Last I looked, raping children was frowned upon by God.
“How’s the economy doing?” Great! We still shovel tons of money into the bankers’ tills every day, and we grow, because the banker bills keep going up and we have to keep up. The only danger is that the tread-mill might wear out and the people die of exhaustion
all rulers live in their fantasy world !
They changed their first definition of recession nearly fifty years ago. In a documentary either on TV or online one interviewee said that before Watergate Nixon was worried about the mid-term elections so he spoke to his economic advisor. Back then the definition of a recession was the first quarter of a shrinking economy, and Nixon didn’t want a recession in the run-up to the mid-terms. His economic adviser said, “No problem. We’ll just change the definition of a recession to mean the first two quarters are shrinking.”
There’s nothing new here. In 2008, when we had the designed finacial collapse, it took the US regime to admit it was in a recession, and that was 18 months after it started. Also, dispitre the US economy shrinking by 16%, the CIAda Fact Book, recorded no decline in US GDP.
Make no mistake, this is the matrix, and why thicko sheeple are so dangerous to those of us who are reasonable informed.
Thus spake (for all intents and purposes) CGI Joe.
(aka) CGI(cia) Joe.
Hey keep voting for your Zionists & Communists masquerading as ‘Republicans’ & ‘Democrats’ in your Jewocracy–I mean ‘democracy’..
Technically Biden is correct bu he has nothing to do with it. The USA is NOT in a recession at this point in time. Decent Earning reports from the big listed companies, combined with decent employment rate, and better than expected GDP and CPI numbers, The FED just put over $2 trillion back in their Repo fund which earns over 2% interest. That is alot of money that will be soon funneled into our economy.
Powell stated last week he is data driven and neutral about upcoming announcements. That is bullish and the market reacted that it was. Of course that can change with a negative catalyst, especially when we get closer to November. But right now overall we are not in a recession.
But when the people die of exhaustion, we find some new ones–they are always pleased to help us for magic pennies