Why I Don't Give A Rat's Ass If, Or When, There's A "Recession"

I haven’t commented much on the ‘debt ceiling’ kabuki dance, but there is one hand-wringing commentary-tic that I can’t let pass by unnoticed. It’s the spectre that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, etc., then the economy “could plunge back into a recession”.

I said this before the “recession”, then I said it when the “recession” was declared, and…well I think I forgot to say it when the “recession” was declared to be over (was it?), but:

Guys, “recession” is just a made-up label they slap on the economic state of affairs. It has no tangible meaning in and of itself per se. In other words, “recession”, as such, is just not something to fear; the tangible economic facts (that could/would bring forth the “recession” label from NBER) are what one could understandably fear.

Facts such as what? Well, such as unemployment. Where is unemployment now? Is it low, because we’re not in an officially-NBER-declared “recession”?

No. it. is. not. It is hella high!

Isn’t that a bad thing, right now, already that ought to be rectified? More to the point, it’s a tangible thing, that affects peoples’ lives. 9+% unemployment = tangible effect. 9+% unemployment + (the NBER declares a “RECESSION”) = the same fucking state of affairs.

Why are people in love with this spurious label? What are the benefits of paying attention to it, exactly? What is the downside of ignoring it?

Of course, if politicians and commentators were forced to speak in tangible terms, such as, for example: “if you don’t increase the debt-ceiling, then the unemployment rate might become hella high, like, um, 9+%, you know, like it already is” just wouldn’t make for the same sort of scary demagoguery. And then the crisis-driven argument for Doing Something! would slip through their fingers.

And we can’t have that; they love their crises, and Doing Something.