Quick Take: The Dreaded R-Word
So now the Biden economy is flirting with recession
Today’s economic news is grim indeed—for the country, for the Biden Administration and for the Democratic Party.
In the first quarter of 2022, the US economy nosedived, contracting by 1.4%, against forecasts that it would grow at a 1% rate. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth is the basic definition of a recession and though some analysts are calling today’s news “signal noise” of no great significance, well, they’re pretty much the same people who predicted that 1% growth.
Democrats have been complaining that all the good economic news out there is being ignored by the ungrateful American people. The economy was roaring along, they said. Millions of jobs have been created, they said. Wages were rising, they said. Now the roar has trailed off into a discontented growl and it’ll be interesting to see how the Biden Administration and the Democrats try to spin this unwelcome development. No doubt Senator Elizabeth Warren will pop up to claim that if the President would just liquidate student loan debt, all will be well.
Now it’s certainly possible that as the prognosticators are now saying, the economy will bounce back in the current quarter. But these are uncertain times. Developments in the Russo-Ukrainian War or the Middle East could administer further shocks to the global economy, with parlous effects here in the Land of E Pluribus Unum. And whatever happens, inflation will continue to roar along, shrinking the value of the dollar, escalating the American people’s household, driving and entertainment expenses.
And Joe Biden is no help. He ran on the promise that he’d be President Boringly Normal: the seasoned veteran with a steady hand on the tiller of the ship of state. In the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 a critical mass of voters suspended their disbelief in that myth, and here we are. Yes, yes, I know, not every bad thing that’s happened since Inauguration Day 2021 is Joe Biden’s fault. He has the responsibility for dealing with them, though, and in almost every instance he’s made a bad situation worse. But why should anybody be surprised? Biden has always been a phony and an ignoramus and a fool. His ineptitude was totally predictable and his evident cognitive decline only magnifies his many faults. If he were twenty years younger, he’d still have screwed it all up.
So now, on top of everything else, Biden and the Democrats are facing the possibility of an early-arriving recession. This year’s midterm election was going to be a debacle for them anyway and perhaps they thought that things couldn’t possibly get worse. But as any conservative could have told them, things can always get worse…and they probably will.