New York City Mayor Eric Adams has countered President Joe Biden’s claim that the United States was doing fine, saying the country was in a recession and “wall street is collapsing.”
According to Mayor Adams, the country’s finance is in a crisis that cannot be “imagined.”
In his words, “we are in a financial crisis like you can never imagine, wall Street is collapsing; we are in a recession.”
Mayor Adams, however, appeared to water down his statement as he added that “the president will make a determination on the official title of where we are; that’s the president, and I follow the lead of the president. We’re dealing with tough economic times, but we’re going to get through it, because I trust in the president.”
Is the US in a Recession?
President Joe Biden appears to disagree that the United States is in a recession. In several public comments, he had insisted that the economy was working fine.
However, data from the Commerce Department showed that the GDP for the second quarter declined by 0.9%. In the first quarter, GDP had dropped by 1.6%.
US top officials like Treasury Secretary Yellen said that she does not believe that the economy was in a recession. Instead, she feels that “we are in a period of transition in which growth is slowing and that’s necessary and appropriate.”
Vice President Kamala Harris had also said the “inflation is too high” and “our economy is slowing down.”
The renewed focus on the US recession has led to wide acclaim that the White House is altering the definition of a recession so that the country can avoid it.
According to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, “official determinations of recessions and economists’ assessment of economic activity are based on a holistic look at the data – including the labor market, consumer and business spending, industrial production, and incomes. Based on this data, it is unlikely that the decline in GDP in the first quarter of this year – even if followed by another GDP decline in the second quarter – indicates a recession.”