Look, I hate the government just as much as the next guy. I also think Yellen and the White House have every incentive to spew propaganda, that said, NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) is the private organization charged with business cycle dating.
See here
You ever look at a graph with time on the horizontal region and there’s thick grey vertical regions that denote a recession? The NBER determines those regions, not the GDP. GDP is a factor, of course, but not the sole determinant.
Think about March 2020. We entered a brief (but devastating) recession. The NBER declared a recession that lasted from March to April of 2020. That’s not even one quarter none the less two.
Two quarters of negative GDP is a sign of fragility, but it’s not sufficient to declare a recession.
If you already made up your mind that Yellen is lying to screw the little people, you will disagree with me and that’s okay. If you happened to be unaware of the NBER, hopefully you learned something.
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