Riddle Me This

Okay, I have a question. Why do I keep hearing news stories where people (either “experts,” or men-on-the-street) are asked whether they think we're experiencing a recession? Why does it matter what anybody thinks about this? A recession is a thing with a definition: two successive quarters with declining GDP. So, the economy either fits that criterion, or it doesn't, and that's what determines whether we're in a recession, no matter what anybody thinks. Asking people whether they think we're having a recession is like asking people whether they think it's snowing it's snowing outside; great if you want some kind of guessing game, but if you want to know if it's snowing, you go to weather.com. (Oh, right, I guess you could look outside, too. I always forget about that option).

I guess the question reporters are really asking is something like, “does the economy look shitty from where you're sitting, and does it look like it's going to get shittier?” Which is conceivably an interesting question, because it gets to people's psychology about the economy, and to whom, specifically, the economy is likely to seem shitty (i.e., who's doing well at the moment and who isn't). But that's exactly why we have this defined thing called a “recession,” because the economy always looks different depending on where you're sitting, and if you actually want to know what the economy is doing as a whole, instead of just who's getting ahead and who isn't, you come up with a defined way of measuring that.

Why is this so hard? Shorter version of this post: Media, please stop being stupid, again.

PS. We are not currently in a recession. Know how I know? I looked it up, because you can do that on the internets. I didn't ask anybody what they think.