Suddenly recessions are defined by jobs reports and unemployment rate instead of GDP. Labor force participation rate, though... that's not a thing.
But they're NOT defined by GDP, except as an unofficial rule-of-thumb. Like all such empirical rules, this is not a hard and fast definition, especially in exceptional situations.
In the U.S., recessions are officially declared by the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research), which defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.” The continued strong growth in jobs and extremely low unemployment rate make it clear that the current U.S. economy does not fit the definition of a recession.
I'll give credit where it's due. The jobs report is good news. I'm glad the blue states have decided to pull their weight. Labor force participation rate, however, directly affects the unemployment rate. Currently it sits at 62.1% and has declined in recent months. Compare that to 63.4% in 2020. The unemployment rate only counts those in the participation rate, meaning that even with a low unemployment rate, we have not recovered the actual number of jobs lost from COVID policies.
Now all we need is red states to pull their own weight via taxation!
I'm pretty sure red state economies are doing better because of lower taxes. It's almost as if businesses want to be located and states that are business-friendly. Crazy.
The only red states that are performing above average, have been Georgia, Florida, and Texas.
And what do all of these states have ? FEDERAL INVESTMENT. STRONG HIGHER EDUCATION. AND MORE EDUCATED WORKERS. Texas by the way has massive federal investment; especially in Aerospace. Georgia has Emory University.
Lower taxes are not the panacea to everything. Let's say you cut taxes. Okay, but if you're not going to get the skilled educated workers, federal investment, it's useless.
i mean; if tax cuts were the answer to everything, we should have seen Alabama be a success story right now. It's not. The only reason why it's barely hanging on is because of Federal government investment.
Something Republicans like to brag about... like Senator Roger Wicker when he boasted about the American Rescue Plan's benefits for MS, without mentioning that he voted against it. Or how Congressman Paul Ryan wrote in 2010 to then Vice President joe Biden thanking Obama for the 2009 federal stimulus, saying that it would create jobs.
