Liberal Media Embraced White House Spin of the Term “Recession”

The Biden administration is redefining the term “recession” ahead of the quarterly GDP report, which would suggest the US is already in recession.

Now, liberal media outlets are trying to defend the White House on its new definition, according to which two consecutive negative GDPs do not necessarily mean a recession.

White House Redefining Recession

Jared Bernstein, a senior official of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, argued that President Biden would not try to “sugarcoat” the upcoming GDP report.

According to him, only the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research can determine if the country is going into recession.

Recently, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also tried to redefine recession, stating two consecutive falling GDPs will not mean a recession, even though she acknowledged it is the “common” definition of recession.

Likewise, Brian Deese, the Director of the National Economic Council, reiterated Yellen’s comments, stating recession can never be defined by only seeing two consecutive negative GDPs.

While speaking on CNN, Deese noted only a “much broader spectrum of data points” can determine the possibility of a recession.

Furthermore, White House adviser Gene Sperling echoed the same new definition, adding the “jobs market” plays a critical role in accessing the possibility of a recession.

Liberal Media Once Again Colluded With the White House

As White House officials are rewriting economic textbooks for their political gain, the liberal media is successfully amplifying the message of the Biden administration.

Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist, wrote “there’s a pretty good chance” of two negative GDP reports in the upcoming days, but “we won’t be” in recession.

In addition to that, Krugman noted this is not how recession “should be defined” and only the relevant institution should announce the recession.

These comments of Krugman came just days after his apology for falsely predicting low inflation in 2022. After Donald Trump’s election victory in 2016, Krugman even announced that the American economy would soon go into recession.

Another reporter of the New York Times, Ben Casselman, suggested it is “hard to say” the country is heading towards a recession.

MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle had the same opinion and even praised the White House, claiming the current post-pandemic recovery does constitute a recession.

The Associated Press published an “EXPLAINER,” which went to great lengths to defend the newly constructed definition of recession.

As per the media outlet, the US labor market introduced 2.7 million new jobs in the last quarter, despite having two consecutive negative GDPs.

So, the so-called “EXPLAINER” warned its readers “you’ve got to be quite careful” of ignoring some important parameters while linking the recession to negative GDP only.

Politico’s Ben White stated the Biden administration is “pretty obviously right” while redefining recession. Just last month, Ben predicted the US economy can soon land into recession once the economic data shows two consecutive negative GDP quarters.

This article appeared in TheDailyBeat and has been published here with permission.

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