With rollercoaster economic turns in past week, are we close to a recession?

ATLANTA — It’s been a whiplash, roller coaster kind of week for those of us paying attention to the economy.

On Monday, there was talk of a looming recession, and by Thursday, it was the Roaring 20′s again.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Channel 2′s Justin Farmer spoke to an Emory University Goizuetta School of Business economist, Dr. Tom Smith, about what you need to know about what’s going on with the economy.

“Unemployment is still very low, inflation is contained and jobless claims are ower, the economic market, the economy at large, is doing very very well,” Smith said.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Atlanta among 8 US cities with housing market values at least $1 trillion
• Cringy moves and a white b-girl’s durag prompt questions about Olympic breaking’s authenticity
• GBI identifies suspect shot, killed during shootout with Athens-Clarke police at Quick Trip

Still, in poll after poll, Americans say they’re feeling squeezed. More people are reporting living paycheck to paycheck,

Smith told Channel 2 Action News about what’s causing that disconnect.

“A lot of consumers waxing nostalgiac about ‘oh remember when we could buy eggs for this much, or buy medication for this much,’ so since then, companies have had to increase their prices because of a lot of different circumstances but certainly supply chain issues,” Smith explained. “People look at those and they say ‘well it’s a little tighter on my pocketbook, therefore the economy must be terrible because I’m having a more difficult time every time I go to the grocery store.’ Holy cats, this is so expensive.”

The Associated Press reported that what made this decline particularly scary was how fast it was.

Still, the market’s swings look more like a “positioning-driven crash” caused by too many investors piling into similar trades and then exiting them together, rather than the start of a long-term downward market caused by a recession, according to strategists at BNP Paribas.

After Monday’s Dow Jones Industrial Average 1,000-point drop, the S&P finished nearly right back where it was a week ago.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:

Increasing use of AI by students to cheat in school has teachers concerned

©2024 Cox Media Group