On Thursday, Democrat President Joe Biden suggested that the U.S. economy was not in a recession despite newly released data showing that the U.S. has entered a recession.
Biden made the comments during a speech at the White House as he attempted to argue that the labor market was doing well and as he pushed for Congress to pass the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, claiming they would boost economic growth.
“That doesn’t sound like a recession to me,” Biden said before leaving the podium without taking questions.
Joe Biden says that the economy is doing perfect, says "That doesn't sound like a recession to me," and then leaves without taking questions. pic.twitter.com/fzZmFEvqmE
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 28, 2022
On Thursday morning, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released a report showing that the U.S. economy continued to shrink in the second quarter of 2022.
“Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022, following a decrease of 1.6 percent in the first quarter,” the report said. “The smaller decrease in the second quarter primarily reflected an upturn in exports and a smaller decrease in federal government spending.”
Additionally, the labor market – which has been one of the only arguably bright spots of the Biden economy – has been cooling down with jobless claims at nearly their highest point of the year and above prepandemic levels.
“Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 256,000 in the week ended July 23 from the prior week’s upwardly revised level, the Labor Department said Thursday. The prior week’s reading was revised up by 10,000 and was the highest level of claims since November,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Last week’s claims stood above the 2019 prepandemic weekly average of 218,000, but remained at a level generally consistent with a solid labor market. The four-week moving average for claims, which smooths weekly volatility, inched up to 249,250 last week, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week’s revised average.”
