The U.S. economy shrunk by 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2022, shocking economists who predicted around one percent growth in America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
BREAKING: GDP fell through the floor in the first quarter, landing at a negative 1.4%.
— BILL HEMMER (@BillHemmer) April 28, 2022
Per CNBC:
Gross domestic product unexpectedly declined at a 1.4% annualized pace in the first quarter, marking an abrupt reversal for an economy coming off its best performance since 1984, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
The negative growth rate missed even the subdued Dow Jones estimate of a 1% gain for the quarter. GDP measures the output of goods and services in the U.S. for the three-month period.
The data from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis paints a bleak picture of the impacts Biden's "Build Back Better" promises and policies have had on the United States over the last 15 months.
On CNBC, a panel referenced the already 40-year high inflation Americans are experiencing and said Thursday's GDP number would "immediately" bring about talk of "stagflation."
CNBC's Joe Kernen: "There's lots of one-offs & distortions. But it doesn't matter. When you...heard people start to talk about recession fears & then...a negative print on GDP, you add into that pretty serious inflation...and then you're immediately going to hear...stagflation" pic.twitter.com/Yn9uGfvHou
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 28, 2022
Sure enough, that's what the reaction has been.
WHOA—GDP turns negative to start 2022. This is what they call stagflation. Inflation and supply chain biting big time.
— Brian Brenberg (@BrianBrenberg) April 28, 2022
BREAKING: GDP plummeted to -1.4% in the first quarter. NEGATIVE 1.4%!
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) April 28, 2022
Hello, stagflation.
Biden and the Dems are driving the economy off a cliff.
Thursday's release also showed that "[p]rices increased sharply during the quarter, with the GDP price index deflator rising 8%," as CNBC explains, echoing the four-decade highs measured by the Consumer Price Index.
It's not exactly the kind of economic situation a president and his party look for months before midterm elections after claiming on the campaign trail in 2020 that he wouldn't shut down the economy or the country and would build the country "back better" than it was under former President Donald Trump.
So much for that booming economy @HouseDemocrats keep crowing about https://t.co/K9vFsbbmhi
— Calvin Moore (@CalvinMoore_) April 28, 2022
Meanwhile over on CNN, damage control mode for Democrats is in full swing where the economic shock was written off by a "reporter" as "quirky" and "weird" and definitely not at all related to President Biden and congressional Democrats' spending spree and other economic missteps:
CNN reporter dismisses the bad GDP report showing a contraction of the economy as "quirky" and "weird": "We've had a lot of weird economic numbers and we just got another one...We shouldn't panic about these numbers b/c the weakness has been driven by some quirky components." pic.twitter.com/bracZXaudF
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 28, 2022
Perhaps CNN should take a look at Joe Biden's policies — or Joe Biden himself — if they're looking for "quirky components" of the U.S. economy.
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