The Media Is Colluding With the Biden Administration to Redefine Recession

Loading

by MATT MARGOLIS

For many decades, a recession has been defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. This definition has never really been disputed until now: Joe Biden, who has spent the past year boasting about his historically unmatched economic record, doesn’t want to admit that his economy is actually garbage.
 
The White House has been bracing for the official announcement of the second straight quarter of negative growth by insisting that the long-accepted definition of a recession is not the true definition of a recession. But, unfortunately, they also refuse to offer their own alternative definition, because an objective standard for defining a recession isn’t politically advantageous at the moment.
 
It was ridiculous to watch the White House make this claim, but now the media is joining in on the ruse.
 
Paul Krugman, always a reliable shill for the Biden administration, writes in The New York Times that he fully expects the Bureau of Economic Analysis to declare on Thursday that GDP shrank in the second quarter of 2022, marking the second consecutive quarter of negative GDP growth, and laments that “there will be a lot of breathless commentary to the effect that we’re officially in a recession.”
 
But, Krugman assures us, that is not the case. “That’s not how recessions are defined; more important, it’s not how they should be defined,” he insists.
 


 
You can almost hear the White House cronies whispering in Krugman’s ear what to say.
 
Sadly, Krugman wasn’t alone.
 
“By one common definition, the U.S. economy is on the cusp of a recession,” writes the Associated Press. “Yet that definition isn’t the one that counts.”
 
Of course not. A recession is whatever Joe Biden says it is.
 
After conceding that the Bureau of Economic Analysis is expected to declare that there was negative GDP growth two quarters in a row and acknowledging that this is the longstanding definition of a recession, the Associated Press jumps right into the White House talking points by saying that “economists say that wouldn’t mean that a recession had started.”
 
I wonder if these are the same “serious economists” that Biden likes to refer to?
 
“During those same six months when the economy might have contracted, businesses and other employers added a prodigious 2.7 million jobs — more than were gained in most entire years before the pandemic,” they continue. “Wages are also rising at a healthy pace, with many employers still struggling to attract and retain enough workers.”
 
Of course, the devil is in the details. These are not all new jobs created as much as they are jobs recovered that were lost during the pandemic, and there’s still a way to go. While the private sector has recovered the jobs lost, the public sector is still lagging behind. Some states (typically red states) are leading the recovery of jobs, while others are still lagging behind. Also, the labor force participation rate stands at 62.2%, which is below the pre-pandemic level of 63.4%.
 
We’ve long criticized the Biden administration for taking credit for creating jobs that were lost during the pandemic shutdowns and then came back when the economy started opening up. But this is a significant flip-flop for the AP, which called out Joe Biden last year for taking credit for job growth on his watch.

Read more
 

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
13 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

65 years ago conservatives said “ThePress (MSM) lies for liberals!”.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”! MSM still lies for liberals and against conservatives!

But there has been a big change – “EL RUSBO”!
Since Rush more conservatives are aware of the bigotry in the “news” broadcasts. Only those few willing to dig understood this 60 years ago.
Today when “news” attacks Don, many see conservative hate “news” bigotry in action.

Of course WE ARE IN A RECESSION!

Democrats took specific steps which disrupted the economy. Energy production was reduced. Inflation has soared. Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. Even though the corrective measures are clear and obvious (do the opposite of what you’ve been doing, stupid), they continue on the same course. How can we NOT go into a recession?

Like with everything else the left does, they will try to weasel out of accountability by simply redefining what success and failure is. Because they get their livelihood off the taxpayer teat, Democrats cannot possibly understand how economics work or the pain and misery they bring upon the American people.

Biden didn’t reduce energy production; petroleum producers did, when global demand flat-lined during the COVID pandemic and keeping up maximum production cost more than the excess product could be sold for. It takes months to bring closed facilities back online. Then, there’s Putin’s damn war.

Inflation resulted from absurdly low interest rates, which should have been gradually raised when the economy was booming, and COVID-related supply chain disruptions that lingered long after consumer demand surged. Demand for many critical components and products still exceeds supply; transporting them is far more expensive than before COVID.

“Democrats took specific steps which disrupted the economy…”

Comment *

Biden didn’t reduce energy production; petroleum producers did, when global demand flat-lined during the COVID pandemic and keeping up maximum production cost more than the excess product could be sold for.

On his first day in office, idiot Biden cut producers off from leases and stopped exploration in the Gulf. Sorry, but no. Idiot Biden, dancing on the strings of his far left enviro-nazis, curtailed exploration and production.

Inflation resulted from Democrats printing and dumping trillions of dollars into the economy as their regulations strangled production and transportation and they were paying people not to work. Mass stupidity.

Democrats were responsible for keeping much of the economy shut down (so they could pass spending bills and steal taxpayer funds). This why red states recovered so much more quickly than blue states. Of course, Democrats hated the open red states because that damaged their agenda to destroy Trump’s economy.

All failure, all Democrat.

Biden was installed for many reasons, one being to reduce petroleum production to help force a manufactured oil crisis.

Biden is to blame for less oil: both intentionally, and with the war in Ukraine (which the US caused, intentionally).

Hyperinflation has been caused by Biden, or more precisely Biden’s masters’, policies.

This is all part of the plan.

Forget “cutting leases”. It’s a propaganda meme. Oil producers aren’t developing thousands of leases that they already hold. They’re just sitting on them.

The industry diverted BILLIONS from new drilling to boost dividends to shareholders. They’ve boosted profits enormously by cutting production while raising prices. They’re about to make NEW record profits that exceed even their recent record quarters. If you disbelieve, look it up. It’s been all over the news the last couple of days.

On his first day in office, idiot Biden cut producers off from leases…

Forget “cutting leases”. It’s a propaganda meme. Oil producers aren’t developing thousands of leases that they already hold. They’re just sitting on them.

Goddamnit, you stupid idiot, he CAMPAIGNED on ending fossil fuels and stopping production. On his FIRST DAY, he signed an executive order banning drilling on federal land and BRAGGED ABOUT IT. Regulations have strangled capital available to production companies and refineries have been converted to ethanal in pursuit of this stupid “green” (meaning the money they reap) agenda.

Stop it. Just stop it. You can’t lie your way out of this one. ALL THIS hardship is caused by idiot Biden and the Democrats and, worst of all, THEY LIKE IT.

Only the village Idiot could say, “Biden didn’t reduce energy production; petroleum producers did, when global demand flat-lined during the COVID pandemic and keeping up maximum production cost more than the excess product could be sold for.” and believe it!

You should look it up yourself. The oil industry is about to break the all-time profit record that they just set. They’re pocketing VASTLY more profit by producing less. Think they’re worried about your cost per gallon while they’re raking it in, hand over fist? If so, you don’t know corporate America.

“Only the village Idiot could say…”

Comment *

They’re pocketing VASTLY more profit by producing less.

Why don’t you read that over again to yourself and consider just how STUPID that statement is.

So there we have Greg admitting the economy was booming while Trump was President. Which of course is the opposite of what HRC and award winning economist Paul Krugman said would happen. We also had low inflation, rising wages, 401k’s doing well, effective energy independence. Oh and no new wars. Ah the good old days. Biden likes to claim oil companies have 9000 leases available now but with Trump there were 30,000+. In fact of the aforementioned 9000 leases about 2500 of them are being challenged in court by various lefty environmental groups. Part of that progressive Democrat coalition.
With that Trump booming economy we had low gas, diesel and natural gas prices. A byproduct of this was it kept Putin in his box at home, he needs high oil and natural gas prices to fund his war efforts. Hard to do that with Trump in office. Biden enables it with his I’m getting rid of fossil fuels agenda. Which of course includes Biden working to get banks NOT to loan money for fossil fuel projects.
During the pandemic, with low oil demand, some refining capacity was shut down. It won’t be coming back. Costly upgrades to those refineries are going to be required and the cost is too high for the ROI timeline to work out. Part of that Biden killing off fossil fuels plan. Problem is, of course there is no replacement for fossil fuels, with 6000 various products made from it. Biden’s going to save the planet even if it kills us. I’m sure it is a frequent topic of conversation on air force one as they fly home to Delaware each weekend. Burning lots jet fuel by select lefties, think Kerry too, is all part of saving the planet it appears.
With all this said, why didn’t energy companies raise prices to the levels we see now, when Trump was president? Folks like Greg keep throwing up that “record profits” argument. Trump unleashed our energy sector and we all benefited with lower prices. So why didn’t oil companies jack up prices then? Didn’t they want record profits then?

One of Americas biggist enemy is the M.S. Media the NYT’s has been lying to its readers since 1932 when they covered up for Stalin and later Hitler

Right at this moment, idiot Biden is telling us they will be raising taxes on corporations. This, he says, will reduce inflation and the deficit. What an absolute dumbass.

Corporations don’t pay taxes. They pass all their costs to the consumer, so idiot Biden IS lying when he says no one making under $400K will see tax increases; EVERYONE will be taxed, and heavily. When all those taxes are added to products and services, THAT is inflation.