Gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, declined by 0.2% in the second quarter after a 0.4% decline in the first, the Commerce Department announced Thursday, raising fears the U.S. could be entering a recession or that one has already started.
Biden on Thursday touted the job market, stating it "remains historically strong, with unemployment at 3.6% and more than 1 million jobs created in the second quarter alone."
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Yet he further announced it was no surprise the economy was slowing down.
"Coming off of last year's historic economic growth — and regaining all the private sector jobs lost during the pandemic crisis — it's no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation," Biden announced in a statement issued after the GDP report. "But even as we face historic global challenges, we are on the right path, and we will come through this transition stronger and more secure."
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Roosevelt was reelected in 1940 after the 1937 recession that saw GDP decline by 18.2%.
Republican presidents have been more successful in surviving recessions, according to Newsweek, including Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s, Richard Nixon in the ’70s and Ronald Reagan in the ’80s.
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Whilst the US isn't in a technical recession, as the designation can only be made months later by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the latest figures are a bitter blow for the Democrats ahead of the November mid-terms.
Roosevelt secured re-election in 1940, despite having managed the recession of 1937–1938 that saw U.S. GDP drop by 18.2 percent, America's second-worst 20th-century recession following the Great Depression.
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Nevertheless, no Democrat president has replicated this feat since, with a number losing power after a recession started under their leadership.
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election after Democrat President Harry Truman oversaw the 1949 recession, which shaved 1.7 percent off U.S. GDP.
Under Jimmy Carter the U.S. entered recession for six months in January 1980, after which Ronald Reagan won the 1980 presidential election with a landslide.
Republican presidents have been far more successful in surviving recessions, with Eisenhower securing re-election in 1956, despite having led America through a recession in 1953 that knocked 2.6 percent from U.S. GDP.