How can I not write about the absurdity of the US political establishment’s attempt to deny the economy is in a recession? As reported earlier this week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the US economy has contracted for the second straight quarter this year.1
Rather than self-reflecting on the reasons the economy is in a recession, the US government is playing word games. The US economy is clearly in bad shape and there is no indication that it’s getting any better. Those defending the administration have assembled into defense mode, stumbling over their words as they struggle to respond to questions. It’s a hilarious circus sideshow to witness. These plastic people employ Newspeak to ensure the masses that there is nothing wrong with the economy. A poor performing economy is bad news for votes, you see. At least for the real votes, that is.
“This is not an economy that’s in recession. We’re in a period of transition in which growth is slowing, and that’s necessary and appropriate.” - US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Meet the Press, July 25, 2022
“In terms of the technical definition, [two negative quarters of growth] is not a recession.” - White House Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese, on CNN’s New Day with host john Berman, July 25, 2022
“The textbook definition of recession is not, is not, two negative quarters of GDP.” - White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Press Briefing, July 27, 2022
But, the mainstream textbook definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative real GDP growth. Economist Paul Samuelson — the first American to be awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1970 — published this definition in the leading college textbook, “Economics: An Introductory Analysis.” Unfortunately, since then his employment of Keynesianism has poisoned the minds of college economists. Samuelson also served the U.S. government as an advisor to two presidents, Kennedy and Johnson, and later worked as a consultant to the US Treasury, the Bureau of the Budget, and the president's Council of Economic Advisers.2 The point is that even the establishment’s arguably favorite economist defines a recession this way.
Wikipedia had to freeze edits to its page for “recession.”3 Apparently, there was frenzy of changes to the page’s definition as a result of the madness. There is a real fight on going between those that believe words mean things and those that believe words are meant to be ambiguous. Just as chameleons change their color to hide from predators, political people do the same with words to maintain their power, influence, and narrative. Stop putting your faith in these people.
This is a typical tactic among the plastic people. Remember when the CDC, just recently, redefined the word “vaccine?” Before the change, the definition of “vaccination” read,
“the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease.”
When people quickly realized that the government’s corporate buddies’ Covid shots weren’t producing any sort of immunity whatsoever (as sold), the political and corporate establishment began to morph the language. You see, they never told you that getting the vaccine would prevent you from getting Covid. Well, ok, yes they did, but they won’t admit to it now. But we remember.
“Our data from the CDC today suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don't get sick, and that it's not just in the clinical trials, but it's also in real-world data.” - CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, during an MSNBC interview with Rachel Maddow, March 29, 2021
“You're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.” - President Joe Biden, during a CNN Town Hall, July 21, 2021
The US government continued to threaten the American people with their jobs if they didn’t take these questionable shots and pitted the American people against each other. So, when their policies showed failure, they doubled down. The CDC’s definition switched the word “immunity” to “protection.” But I’d say a new definition is again in order as it’s quite questionable that these shots provide any sort of “protection” whatsoever, other than perhaps protection to Pfizer’s bank account.