The Economy Survived 2025, But Many Americans Are Reeling – A feared recession didn’t materialize, but unemployment rose, wage growth slowed and affordability challenges are mounting
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/business/economy-unemployment-wages-affordability.html
Posted by thinkB4WeSpeak
11 Comments
“Didn’t materialize”? Rising unemployment, slowing wages, fed cutting interest rates, and affordability concerns are ALL hallmark traits of a recession. The fact the current White House is tinkering with numbers and refusing to release recent reports is telling things are MUCH worse than a snapshot tells us.
A recession is a lagging indicator, as is unemployment. Take that combined with the only increase in GDP was dumped into AI which has at best hasn’t been as useful as people thought from a business investment perspective. 2025 has shown a slowing economy, combined with bad government policy. As numerous other outlets have reported consumption spending is being carried by top 10% of income earners while the average person is struggling. I really hope that rate cuts 2026 don’t accelerate inflation too much but we shall wait and see
Come on. Everyone in the know understands that the big depression is going to happen in ’29. We are just leading up to it. We can’t let history down.
Well, Trump’s stooge in the Fed seems to disagree:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-22/fed-risks-recession-without-more-interest-rate-cuts-miran-says](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-22/fed-risks-recession-without-more-interest-rate-cuts-miran-says)
No one demands rate cuts if the economy is all well and dandy.
A lot of Joe Biden’s policies overheated the economy and skyrocketed inflation. His deficit spending is why prices are so high.
Joe Biden also continued Tariff policy, which this sub seems to ignore about
I think we’re definitely headed towards something soon.
I know a lot of people who are holding onto as much liquidity as they can (myself included) to try to keep the lights on as long as possible during whatever economic crisis is coming.
Originally, I had planned on and was saving up for some major purchases this year. Had she-who-laughs-funny won or the current POTUS simply decided to let the economy be – like his first term -, I probably would have dropped $50,000-75000 into buying a vehicle, home upgrades and lifestyle improvements. I am at an income level where I can do all of that.
Instead, I’m keeping that money saved up and definitely not investing it so I can keep a roof over my head when everything comes crashing down.
The recession did materialize. By dropping imports to near zero, net exports, a measure of GDP growth, exploded. Gerrymandered GDP, just like CPI, just like Employment.
I don’t believe any of the numbers coming out of the federal government nowadays not even one the policy is basically if the president doesn’t like the numbers they fire whoever did them and then hire someone who will give him the numbers that he wants
Disingenuous framing, of course it’s the NYT.
Sure, maybe certain technical markers of a recession didn’t trigger but everyone who works and lives in the real world know we are in a recession and frankly have been for a while.
“*America was lucky to avoid a recession. While literally every single critical variable utilized for calculating a recession (rising unemployment, inflation, slower hiring/slower wage growth, a significant uptick in repo markets, student loan defaults, 42% of Americans reporting that they are now living paycheck to paycheck) and affordability for basic tenets of life have skyrocketed (food, shelter, access to services), and consumer sentiment continues to be pessimistic and terrified of the future, we here at the New York Times are pleased to announce that the economy is doing well! We even experienced paltry GDP growth! See? Not a recession!”*
Meager article.
Guess what happens when governors shut down their state economies (and schools) for almost two years, then the federal government bails them out with $8 trillion in loans that were supposed to be paid back? Duh!