What is a recession?
President Joe Biden’s administration wants to change the definition of the word because it doesn’t want the Democratic president to preside over one. The legacy media, known for their liberal bias, are right there with the White House.
The Associated Press is playing defense for the Biden administration, running a piece about how the United States isn’t heading for a recession, despite the United States, by definition, heading for a recession.
The news agency published a piece called “EXPLAINER: How do we know when a recession has begun?” The first two paragraphs acknowledge the looming recession but deny that it really is a recession.
“By one common definition, the U.S. economy is on the cusp of a recession,” the Associated Press wrote. “Yet that definition isn’t the one that counts. On Thursday, when the government estimates the gross domestic product for the April-June period, some economists think it may show that the economy shrank for a second straight quarter. That would meet a longstanding assumption for when a recession has begun.”
We define a recession as two quarters of negative GDP growth. Recessions happened in years such as 1949, 1953, 1958, 1970, 1974, 1982, 1991, 2001, 2008, and 2020. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
But that’s not how the Associated Press thinks. Instead, the piece talks about so-called job creation and wage growth (which is being outpaced by inflation).
The piece points out that the Biden administration says the country has seen gross domestic income growth — because parroting government officials touting little-used statistics is how we get the truth in journalism.
The piece also says that the 1.8% GDI growth minus 1.6% GDP means the economy grew 0.2% in the first quarter of 2022.
It also says that increasing unemployment applications aren’t a big deal.
“Many economists monitor the number of people who seek unemployment benefits each week, which indicates whether layoffs are worsening,” the Associated Press wrote. “Last week, applications for jobless aid rose to 251,000, the highest level in eight months. While that is a potentially concerning sign, that is still a low level historically.”
This spin defending the state of the economy is unusual from the Associated Press. When not covering the Biden administration, the news outlet has used the standard definition of a recession.
On Jan. 31, the Associated Press reported that Mexico had entered a technical recession, using the two consecutive quarters of economic decline definition. “Mexico’s economy entered a technical recession at the end of last year with two consecutive quarters of contraction despite annual growth of 5% for 2021,” the Associated Press wrote.
The news outlet also reported that two consecutive quarters of economic contraction meant that France was in a recession in May 2013. “France’s economy is in recession again — and that could spell more trouble for Europe,” the Associated Press wrote. “The national statistics agency, Insee, said Wednesday that gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of the year. The agency also revised its data for the fourth quarter of last year, saying GDP fell 0.2 percent, up from a 0.3 percent retraction. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.”
And, according to the Associated Press, Germany endured a recession in 2020. Take a guess why. “The German economy shrank by 2.2% in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period as shutdowns in the country and beyond started to bite, official data showed Friday,” AP wrote. “That means Europe’s biggest economy went into recession following a small dip at the end of last year.”
It does the public a disservice for the Associated Press to try to spin this lousy economy using the Biden administration’s talking points. With reporting like this from the supposedly neutral Associated Press, it’s no wonder why only 16% of the American public has confidence in newspapers.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
