Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Get Ready for Another Fake Economic Recovery

The latest U.S. GDP report was ghastly. The inevitable statistical rebound will be bad news, too.

July 31, 2020 at 6:30 AM EDT

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

Don’t be fooled.
Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Getty Images

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There are plenty of reasons to be worried about record-breaking economic losses suffered by the U.S. in the second quarter of 2020. The impact on workers and households has been severe. Many parts of the economy will be damaged for years.

Here’s another reason: Thursday’s bad economic news guarantees another round of deceptively good news in the fall, which could lead to unwarranted confidence that gives policymakers an excuse to provide inadequate support to a weak economy.

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