As the economy begins to soften and the Ukraine war drags on, Joe Biden's poll numbers show

his vulnerability, but will Republicans be able to take advantage? I'm Ben Shapiro. This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

The Ben Shapiro show is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Protect our online privacy today at

expressvPN.com slash Ben. There's been a lot of speculation for a very long time that the economy was going to soften, and now it has finally begun. According to the Wall Street Journal, earnings for the nation's biggest companies are poised to fall for the third straight quarter hurt in part by the decline in energy prices. So why exactly aren't we technically in a recession? Presumably because consumer spending remains pretty high because of all the inflation in the economy. These of all the extra dollars that Joe Biden blew into the economy because of the easy money

policies Presumably, because consumer spending remains pretty high because of all the inflation in the economy, these of all the extra dollars that Joe Biden blew into the economy because of the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve, it takes a while for that to wash its way out of the economy. But as that happens, consumers are not going to be able to outpace producers. Producers are starting to cut back. They are seeing the writing on the wall. They're starting to consolidate their gains. And they're starting to realize that if they continue to expand their actual manufacturing, their actual production, then they are going to undercut themselves. And so you're starting to see earnings declines for virtually every major company. The members of the S&P 500, according to the Wall Street, turn a lot on pace to collectively report a 5.2% decline in earnings their worst performance

since 2020. Revenue is on track to rise 0.6% from a year ago, but that's largely due to inflation

at this point. Some of this is due to the decline in oil prices. For example, the energy sector is

taking it right on the chin. But it's also happening in materials and it's also happening in tech.

Apple sales fell for the third consecutive quarter amid softening demand for consumer devices. The only areas that

continue to have quarterly revenue growth are areas of health care, communication services,

real estate is continuing to sort of hold steady at this point. But we are about to see more of these companies report bad earnings,

and that means that the economy is likely to see a downturn in the coming quarters.

Employment numbers came out on Friday.

They're weaker than expected.

That, of course, is not greatly a shock because, as we've been saying for months here on this program,

what goes up must come down.

The idea that an overheated economy was not going to crash off of a cliff was always a rather specious presumption. Meanwhile, on foreign policy,

the Ukraine war continues apace. According to the New York Times, Ukrainian forces struck two bridges

connecting Russian-occupied Crimea to the rest of Ukraine on Sunday, part of a broader pattern of

attacks on and around the peninsula that has sought to scramble critical supply routes for the Kremlin and push the

scope of the war into fresh territory. This is all part of the Ukrainian offensive. They're hoping

that they will push the Russians back so much that the Russians will come to the negotiating table.

...