Journalists covering the economy these days have trouble finding the right words to describe it. “Unexpected” comes to mind. “Chaotic.” “Weird.” The International Monetary Fund said, “2023 will feel like a recession.” A top economist told the media to expect a “recession”. Earlier in the new year, the stock market rose as the jobs report came out.Nick Timiraos, Finance Correspondent Covering the Federal Reserve Board wall street journal“It’s not our job to make predictions.” Still, reporters struggle to make sense of the present.
“Today, covering the U.S. economy is more difficult than ever. bloomberg news, Said. “The data points in multiple directions. You can see very strong parts of the economy and very weak parts.” The housing market appears to be in recession, he explained. “But there are also other parts of the economy that are doing very well.” The hospitality industry is making positive profits. last month, journal reported that private consumption increased as inflation eased. Donnan has been covering the economy for more than 20 years, and yet she says, “It’s hard to understand where the economy is going and what it’s telling us.”
Emily Stewart is usually a financial reporter. vox, the recession is associated with two consecutive quarters of negative growth in gross domestic product. That happened last summer, but Stewart wrote that a recession was “extremely unlikely” and characterized the situation as “a bad mood economy”. seems not to be here yet.” Here are her reasons: “We are also looking at the labor market, such as layoffs. I talk to experts, economists and the public. How’s your work going?” She has avoided saying that we are, or will be, in a recession.
Arthur Delaney, Political Economy Reporter huff post, he said he was focused on the Federal Reserve’s response to inflation. Leaving it to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which weighs a variety of factors, he defines a recession as: ’” said Delaney. They look at months of data and make an announcement after a recession. So individual journalists can’t really say if we’re in it because there are official recession scorekeepers. ”
Some reporters have sought clarity in unconventional places. “We started looking at things like restaurant reservations, flight data, how many people went through TSA checks,” he said. “There are even companies using satellite tracking to see how empty a store’s parking lot is.” But the results can lead to conflicting conclusions. To contextualize the findings, Donnan said he has focused on the structure of the economy, and who has benefited and who has suffered from various trends. “Our job as journalists is to find out who benefits and who is left behind.”
Annie Lowrey — 15 years of economics and finance reporting, now Atlantic—Rather than looking at the economy as a whole and determining whether a country is in recession or not, we chose to focus on individual companies and people. I said.) The health of the economy feels different in different places. “I’m in San Francisco, and the economy is quite out of sync with the rest of the United States,” she said. “Housing prices have fallen really sharply. It’s a funny situation here in tech. We don’t have unemployment piled up in San Francisco, but it’s a much tougher environment than it was a year or two ago. .”
According to Delaney, perhaps the most difficult part of the current economic coverage is that it tends to be “boring.” Stories can be very repetitive, and it’s hard to find new ways to explain things. ”
When in doubt, there is a perfectionist approach. “We want our readers to have the best information they need to make informed decisions about their lives, but we know that there are many disagreements among economists. There are often times, ”he said Timiraos. “So I try to offer a few different perspectives, and if only one of them he’s right, at least it helped people understand the different ways something could unfold. ” He avoided drawing his own conclusions, adding:
Donnan also resists the declaration. “I’ve learned to take with a grain of salt what people who are very confident about the direction of the economy say. ‘Most of them were wrong.'”
Mercy Tonia Orengo is a CJR Fellow.
