Slick Landing - Doomberg

In the first half of 2022, the US economy was struggling. Real gross domestic product (GDP) was negative in the first quarter, and with war raging in Ukraine, energy prices skyrocketing, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell beginning what he promised would be an aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes, the strong consensus among macroeconomic analysts put the country on a path to an imminent and deep recession. When the second quarter GDP print hit the wires just weeks before crucial midterm elections, a partisan debate over the economy’s nosedive quickly unfolded. We turn to NPR for a sense of the spin of the day (emphasis added throughout): “The U.S. economy shrank in the last three months by 0.9%. This is the second consecutive quarter where the economy has contracted. In the first quarter, GDP, or gross domestic product, decreased at an annual rate of 1.6%. While two consecutive quarters of negative growth is often considered a recession, it's not an official definition. A no

In the first half of 2022, the US economy was struggling. Real gross domestic product (GDP) was negative in the first quarter, and with war raging in Ukraine, energy prices skyrocketing, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell beginning what he promised would be an aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes, the strong consensus among macroeconomic analysts put the country on a path to an imminent and deep recession. When the second quarter GDP print hit the wires just weeks before crucial midterm elections, a partisan debate over the economy’s nosedive quickly unfolded. We turn to NPR for a s