Recession another victim of Democrats’ rewriting of the English language

When is a recession not a recession? When a Democrat is in the White House, apparently.

The traditional rule of thumb for when an economy is in a recession is a decline in gross domestic product for two consecutive quarters — a shrinking economy for half a year. Under previous presidents, that was not a controversial definition. In 2008, Joe Biden’s National Economic Council director, Brian Deese, wrote, “Economists have a technical definition of recession, which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.”

But here’s Deese Wednesday: “Two negative quarters of GDP growth is not the technical definition of recession.” He’s not the only one. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Sunday: “we are not in a recession now” even if GDP declines for a second straight quarter. “That’s not the technical definition.”

You can guess the reason for the spin: When the second-quarter GDP number came out Thursday — surprise! — it was negative for the second straight quarter. Just don’t say the R-word. President Biden’s response: “That doesn’t sound like recession to me.” It’s like a three-card-monte dealer looking you in the eye and saying, “That’s not the queen.”

Two fig-leaf excuses are offered for this rigamarole. One is that unemployment is falling — but with inflation around 9%, the stock market down about 10% this year, the labor force shrinking and business output restricted by the millions of unfilled jobs, the fact that people are working harder while their dollars aren’t going as far is not much to crow about.

Yellen also argues it’s not a recession until the National Bureau of Economic Research says it is. But the NBER does historical statistics, so it often takes a year for it to declare a recession. Talk about trying to run out the clock.

https://nypost.com/2022/07/28/recession-another-victim-of-democrats-rewriting-of-the-english-language/

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