Is the US in a recession?
"I don't think we should be as concerned with whether we meet some ill-defined term like recession," said University of North Dakota professor David Flynn. "There are issues in the economy that need to be addressed."
Flynn said the big issue is inflation. He said the fact that prices are rising, and at the pace they’re rising, is a problem.
"We can get a headline number for inflation that says seven, eight, nine percent," Flynn said. "Whatever that number is, it's an aggregate — not everything rises by the same rate."
Flynn said when you confront those kinds of decisions consumers don't know how to allocate their paychecks appropriately any more.
"That's because the relative value of these different things they buy are suddenly off," Flynn said.
Flynn said you can add supply chain issues to that.
As to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to control inflation by raising interest rates, Flynn said we should not view that as focusing on the inflation right now, but rather it’s about future inflation.
"They (the Fed) are sitting there, resigned to the fact that inflation is way beyond what they are comfortable with, and currently doesn't look like it's going to quickly come back into line at what they would like," Flynn said. "They're concern is solely maintaining credibility a inflation-fighting policy makers going forward."
