The Ghost Recession: A Brief Economic History of Now
Podcast: Optimist EconomyPublished On: Tue Sep 23 2025
Description: The economic pain that Americans experienced in 2022-23 was dubbed the “vibesession,” suggesting that negative public sentiment was out of sync with a healthy economy. But what we were truly experiencing was more like a “ghost recession.” As the Fed squeezed the economy by raising interest rates from zero to above 5% to get inflation under control, only the extraordinary circumstances of the post-pandemic economy kept unemployment low and the economy growing. But if we had a ghost recession, that also means that the nascent 2024 “ghost recovery” screeched to a halt with the radical changes to economic policy this year. Also in this episode: What it means that 911,000 fewer jobs were created from spring 2024-2025, and many metaphor try-outs.Revenge of the Vibecession | The New Yorker Birth-Death Model FAQTHE THIN END OF THE WEDGE definition in American English | Collins English DictionaryEconomists’ models of inflation are letting them down [The Economist 2019]
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