Mixed Stats Muddy the Waters
Commentary
For all the debate over and ambiguity in recent statistics, the U.S. economy can only be described as weak. Economic pessimists claim it is already in recession, pointing to the last two consecutive quarters of declining real gross domestic product (GDP).
The White House and members of the Democratic Party are, for obvious political reasons, loath to make such a concession. They cling to a more technical definition of recession formulated by the venerable National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and point to historically strong hiring rates to claim that there is more economic strength than meets the eye….