Is This a Recession or Not?

Optimist Economy

Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi

Public Policy, Economics, Government, Economy

4.9 • 829 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Wouldn’t it be funny if we launched a podcast called “Optimist Economy” at the very moment the economy started to slide? Nice timing, us! In this bonus episode we dive into the data that has folks spooked. We also talk about if willy-nilly tariff policy (technical economic term there) is to blame, whether a recession is more like a wildfire or a hurricane, and how a recession might affect you. Also, who gets to declare, “Recession on!” Can we squeeze an ounce of optimism out of a recession episode? We try. You be the judge.

Some of the stuff we talk about:

You can also find Optimist Economy at:

optimist.economy@gmail.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun music music music music
0:04.6	Hello and welcome to Optimist Economy.
0:10.7	I'm Catherine.
0:11.8	I'm Robin.
0:12.7	And on this show, we believe the U.S. economy can be better and we talk about how to get there, one problem and solution at a time.
0:28.7	We're talking about a big problem this week. Big problem this week in a special episode, even though we only launched last week.
0:34.0	Yesterday.
0:35.9	We're already doing a special episode, different from our regular weekly
0:40.8	episodes where we could talk about something that's, I say, more time sensitive or pressing
0:45.7	than whatever topic we end up talking about in the pitch meeting, which this week is
0:50.8	recessions. Recessions. So I should explain a little bit of a journey I've had over the past couple of weeks that in addition to being podcaster, I am a writer on Bloomberg and labor economist expert slash talking head.
1:05.3	And the past two weeks have been a whirlwind of media hits of speaking to journalists and going on TV shows
1:13.6	and being guests on other people's podcasts about recessions and this kind of palpable fear
1:20.2	that's growing in the economy that we're heading for a recession. And wouldn't you know I eventually
1:24.7	came to the conclusion, I too have a podcast and that maybe we could
1:30.3	talk about it on your podcast and that we could talk about this thing that I'm an expert about
1:35.8	that's pressing in the economy and it is on the front of a lot of people's minds we could talk about it
1:40.0	on the podcast that I host pay yourself first Catherine yeah what matters is we there. It was definitely one of those moments in life of if you're a Simpson's fan of like Dental plan, Lisa needs braces. Dental plan. Lisa needs braces. Dental plan. Lisa needs braces. Dental plan. Just like kept going. But we're doing a special episode to talk about recessions and where they come from and if you should be scared right now. So I mean, I reckon I could start with why people are scared.
2:12.6	I also want to point out that I think people have been a little concerned since the election last year
2:17.7	where there was so much talk about tariffs, right? That people were worried that aggressive
2:22.7	tariffs were going to raise prices. And a lot of the talk was about continuing inflation.
2:27.9	But we moved into this recession talk pretty recently and not just because of political opposition, but because some things are really
	...

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