You would think that determining whether or not an economy is in recession should be fairly straightforward. While most folks seem to think two quarters of negative growth settles the matter, the White House is insistent that the US is not in recession. Recessions are  declared retrospectively, generally by economists, like those at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Once they’re pretty sure that the economy has reached the bottom of a dip and is on its way back up, then they’ll let you know you just went through a recession. Perhaps the President is right – there’s no recession yet because we’re not done falling, but for now, we don’t need his definition to see that the US economy is not in a good place. 

Silicon Valley corporations, famous for their sprawling workforces have been putting a freeze on hiring and laying off staff. Facing the first loss ever, Meta‘s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, warned Facebook employees that they need to bring their A-game if they want to keep their jobs.