Call it a recession or not—the economy is very weird right now
Are we truly in a recession or not? The debate obscures just how bonkers the economy has been behaving this year.
With the news Thursday that, according to the government’s preliminary estimate, U.S. GDP growth was negative in the second quarter, the “are we in a recession?” debate is now in full swing. Many news outlets, including Fox Business, proclaimed that because this marks two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the U.S. has entered a “technical recession,” even as President Biden and his various spokespeople pointed to the fact that myriad economic indicators other than GDP growth are strong enough that the recession label doesn’t fit. That has led to accusations that the administration is attempting to change the definition of a recession for political purposes.