Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Sunday pushed back against the notion that the United States was in a recession, despite back-to-back quarters of the U.S. economy contracting.
Krugman told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” that the United States was not in a recession in “any technical sense.”
Host Brian Stelter opened up by asking, “Are we in a recession, and does the term matter?”
“No, we aren’t, and no, it doesn’t,” Krugman replied.
“None of the usual criteria that real experts use says we’re in a recession right now,” he added. “What does matter? The state of the economy is what it is. Jobs are abundant, although maybe the job market is weakening. Inflation is high, though maybe inflation is coming down. What does it matter whether you use the ‘r-word’ or not?”
Krugman went on to say he had “never seen anything as bad” as the “determination of a lot of people to say it’s a recession.” He explained the reason behind referring to the state of the economy as a “Biden recession” was just “vitriolic” partisanship.
“I would say that this is especially vitriolic,” Krugman stated. “I’ve been in this business for a couple of decades, and I get lots of hate mail and see stuff. I’ve never seen anything as bad as this. The determination of a lot of people to say it’s a recession is above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”
“What do you think is driving that?” Stelter asked. “Just partisanship and polarization getting worse and worse every year?”
“It’s partisanship. People want it. It’s the Biden recession. They want their Biden recession. They’re going to have it, never mind the fact … it’s not a recession in any technical sense,” he responded.
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