A Biden Recession by Any Other Name

Asterisk Admin Preemptively Defends its Abysmal Economics

It is extremely likely that US GDP growth in the second quarter for 2022 was negative- possibly at an even sharper rate than it already was in the first quarter of the year. If this is the case, the colloquial definition of "recession" is adequate to describe the abysmal economic situation; replete with higher jobless claims, sinking labor force participation, inflation (maybe stagflation) and other issues.

Rather than accept responsibility for having destroyed the US economy, the Biden administration has chosen to try and get out ahead of the news cycle (we will likely get the official Q2 report on Thursday) by preemptively declaring that the general meaning of "recession" magically does not apply to the situation. Instead of looking at actual economic growth, they argue, we need to take a "holistic" approach to analyzing the economy. Recession? No recession folks, nothing to see here!

The sad fact is that the reality on the ground for a majority of Americans is not a happy one. Wages are pacing well behind Bidens inflation and there aren't many economic metrics that are positive right now, save for unemployment, which is likely to begin growing and may already have begun doing so.

How's that for a holistic economic analysis?

I speculate that Joe Biden will almost immediately begin blaming Putin or declare this recession to be effectively "transitory" once the American people reject his laughable claim that the recession does not exist at all. Echoes of their initial inflation claims, perhaps? The good news is the supermajority of Americans see through Joe Bidens' blame game and constant deflection; his disapproval on economic issues is so far below water that it would make Jimmy Carter blush.