Try Not to Think of a Recession

Is the US in a recession? New York Mayor Eric Adams seems to think so. He told non-profit group Project Hospitality last week: “We are in the midst of a financial crisis the likes of which you can never imagine. . . . Wall Street collapses. We are in a recession.” But Mr. Adams’ Democrats in the Biden administration have angrily denied there is a recession. When a reporter asked him if they were wrong, he backed down: “The President will determine the official title of where we are; this is the President and I am following the President’s lead.”

Wikipedia attempted to declare a truce in the war of words by restricting its “Recession” page so that unregistered users could not edit it. At one point, the site claimed there was “no global consensus” on how to define a recession. There’s a rule of thumb that says two consecutive quarters of contracting gross domestic product — like the first two quarters of 2022 — indicate a recession.