New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman said the reason Americans believe the United States is in a recession is due to a “media failure” during a Sunday appearance on CNN.
“I think that the big problem has been that the coverage has tended — you know, kind of, it bleeds, it leads, but this time and economic data, the negatives get all of the attention,” Krugman told CNN host Brian Stelter.
“If you ask people, ‘How are you doing?’ they are pretty — they’re pretty upbeat,” Krugman said. “You know, there are signs that you know, people are complaining now especially, but things like gas prices, although those have come down in the last six weeks. But if you ask people, ‘How’s your financial situation?’ it’s pretty favorable. If you ask them, ‘How’s the economy?’ they say, ‘Oh, it’s terrible.’ And that’s a media failing. Somehow, we are failing to convey the realities of what’s going on to people.” (RELATED: ‘That Sound You’re Hearing Is The Goalpost Moving’: Tucker Rips Media For Recession Flip-Flop)
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Stelter earlier asked if the United States was facing a recession.
“No, we aren’t, and no, it doesn’t,” Krugman told Stelter.
“None of the usual criteria that real experts use says that we’re in a recession right now,” Krugman said. “And what does it matter? The state of the economy is what it is. Jobs are abundant although maybe the job market is weakening. Inflation is high, although maybe inflation is coming down.”
The economy shrank by 0.9% in the second quarter of 2022 after contracting 1.4% in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Two consecutive quarters of contraction is a commonly-used metric to determine if a recession is taking place, according to Investopedia.
“The determination of a lot of people to say it’s a recession is above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” Krugman said.
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