Yellon changes the definition of recession to make Biden look less demented

When an immature child is losing the game, the child changes the rules. When a leftist is losing the argument, the leftist changes definitions.

Former Chair of the Federal Reserve and current U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, a flaming Democrat, claims that the U.S. is not in a recession [it is] but in a “period of transition in which growth is slowing.”

Yellen spoke with NBC host Chuck Todd this past weekend and said that  “growth is slowing” — even though output appears to be turning negative for a sustained period of time, which is not the same thing.

Her rather self-serving understatement comes ahead of the Bureau of Economic Analysis publishing an advanced estimate of second quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth later this week — a reading that is expected to show that the economy shrank at a 1.6% annualized pace from April to June.

So by definition, if the economy shrinks over two quarters, this is known as a recession, and Yellen knows this factoid but would rather change the definition to make her boss look sentient.

Let's review: since the economy contracted at a 1.5% rate in the first quarter, the US may have experienced two quarters of negative growth, which meets the rule-of-thumb definition for a recession. If it doesn't shrink the predicted 1.6%, then that would be a minor miracle and Yellen would look like Nostradamus on Red Bull.

The genius admitted in June that she was "wrong" about the “path that inflation would take” but never learned from her error.

“This is not an economy that’s in recession,” the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn gal told Todd. “But we’re in a period of transition in which growth is slowing and that’s necessary and appropriate and we need to be growing at a steady and sustainable pace. So there is a slowdown and businesses can see that and that’s appropriate, given that people now have jobs and we have a strong labor market.”

The "slowdown" isn't the economy slowly going forward, it's the economy going backwards in reverse, like a student driver doing their first parking job.

Yellen also said that low joblessness is an indicator of strong economic performance. However, while unemployment is currently at 3.6%, clearly an improvement from the April 2020 level of 14.7%, labor participation hasn't recovered from pre-recession levels and thus we have worker shortages that increase expenses for businesses and thus, for consumers.

Yellen dismissed claims of a recession due to "solid" consumer spending. But the spending she calls "solid" is a reflection of higher prices for goods and services. Of course Americans are spending more--we have no choice.

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As alleged President Biden’s approval rating continues to slowly circle the bowl, news of a recession would worsen Democrats’ chances in the upcoming midterm elections. To combat the recession, Democrats have stopped calling it a recession and hope the American people are stupid enough to buy that bridge to Brooklyn.

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