The White House sent a message out this week that the definition of a recession is not 2 quarters of declining GDP growth (because it isn’t) which sent a lot of people into an uproar. Which makes sense, many educational institutions and journalists will use 2Qs as shorthand, which creates confusion when people find out that isn’t true. • Why is it so confusing? Jason Zweig from the WSJ probably gave the best answer - politics. It’s always politics. “The CFA Society uses 2 quarters, what person from Washington is paying you to lie to people” is a direct comment I got when saying that no one changed the definition. ... (full story)