Even a CNN panel is unconvinced of the Biden administration’s claims about a recession.
What is the background?
Last week, the Biden administration argued that the definition of a recession — interpreted as two consecutive quarters of GDP decline — isn’t really the definition.
On Monday, Fox News journalist Peter Doocy inquired about how concerned the public should be over the prospect of a recession during a White House interview with President Joe Biden. Biden’s response was entirely devoid of objectivity.
“In my view, we’re not going to be in a recession,” Biden said.
What happened?
In a segment on CNN’s “The Lead,” a panel of commentators criticized Biden’s administration for doing anticipatory damage control ahead of an expected bad economic report.
“The Biden team is trying to show that a recession has several definitions. But I’m going to tell you something: I have trouble with this. From a political standpoint, I understand why they want to do it; but you can’t fake this!” Hunt said.
Chris Cillizza, the editor at large of CNN, criticized what Biden said to Doocy.
“I was laughing to myself with the ‘in my view’ game. In my opinion, I should be chosen by the NBA,” Cillizza mocked.
“It doesn’t matter what you believe,” he added. “There is a technical definition for it, two-quarters of negative economic growth in a row. They seem to think that it’s likely to happen later this week. They’re trying to prebut it.”
Cillizza agreed that it’s easy to understand why the Biden administration would want to alter the definition of a recession, yet he denounced them for doing so.
“We have these definitions for a reason. You don’t have to like it. Of course, they don’t like it because the economy — you know, Joe Biden’s approach to economics was 25% or 30% in our most recent poll. It’s an issue for them; this adds to their problems,” Cillizza added. “But you can’t change the name of the game in the middle of a campaign because it isn’t working for you.”
After the United States economy shrank 1.6% in the first quarter of 2022, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, economists are still divided about what the BEA’s initial second-quarter estimate will reveal. On Thursday, an estimate will be released.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow, on the other hand, predicts a decline of 1.6 percent in economic growth; however, economists at Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs expect modest rises of less than 1%.
