After shrinking slightly in the first three months, it’s now recession time. The U.S. economy grew at an annual zero-point-zero rate last quarter.
Although the numbers aren’t yet public, Zero Hedge managed to get them on Wednesday midday.
Recession
Economists define a recession as a period of negative or zero growth over two consecutive quarters. That’s exactly what we have seen in the first half of 2022, after one year of Bidenomics.
From January to March, the economy contracted at an annual rate of 1.5%. This was a revision downwards from the original estimate of 1.4% contraction, and worse than expected revisions to 1.3%.
Consumer spending drives more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, and consumers are feeling the pinch of double-digit price hikes for nearly everything, higher borrowing costs, and record credit-card debt to try and pay for it all.
Considering all of that, it’s almost impressive that overstrained consumers managed to juice the economy all the way up to zero.
More details will be forthcoming, I am afraid.