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while im not necessarily a doomsayer about a recession, im not sure any of these are adequate buttresses against one

the s&p doesnt tend to go down until a recession is either imminent or happening, and modern economic policy may even prevent that due to the vastly expanded wealth disparity

the unemployment rate isn't really the tool it once was--if you include two groups that count as "employed" by the US unemployment rate--people seeking full time jobs but working only 1-34 hours a week, and people earning below the poverty line (under 26k pre-tax anually), the functional unemployment rate climbs to 24.9%--higher even than any month in the post-covid period of 2022-2024 (inclusive).

yes, more small businesses than ever, but growth last year was almost non-existent. and it generally proxies vs able-bodied adults, which would have seen an increase larger than the businesses.

gdp is high but much of that is ai company shuffle and debt-to-gdp ratio is rising once again--now the highest it's been since the 2020 massive covid bump

birth rates are broadly down as well, likely stemming from cost of living, and birth rates do tend to predict recessions.

it's fine to point at numbers but they don't really mean anything in isolation

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