Most people believe we’re already in a recession, and it is widely expected that we’ll learn this week that the U.S. economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter — meaning we’ve officially entered a recession.
Except the Biden administration plans to keep the United States out of recession by simply redefining what a recession is.
The White House has gotten a lot of flak for this, and on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if the White House could provide a definition for recession.
She refused.
“What is exactly White House’s definition of a recession?” a reporter asked.
“Again, we don’t — we don’t — not going to define it from here. I’m just going to leave it to the NBER [National Bureau of Economic Research], as we have stated and how they define recession.”
"What is exactly the White House's definition of a recession?"
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: "I'm not going to define it from here" pic.twitter.com/GNteaetb0V
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 25, 2022
In other words, they won’t have their definition until they see the next economic report first, completely divorcing themselves from the notion that there is an objective standard as to what a recession is.
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