Your Weekend Reading: The Rolling Little Recession Theory
Get caught up.
As the US enters the third year of the pandemic, its economy isn’t done throwing curve balls. The Federal Reserve’s rate hikes coupled with a return to “normalcy” by consumers have tamped down the housing market. Silicon Valley behemoths like Meta, Alphabet and Yahoo are dismissing tens of thousands of their workers, with a particular focus on middle managers. Dell is eliminating about 6,650 jobs as it faces plummeting demand for personal computers. And while more economists come around to the soft-landing school, a new theory about the US economy has appeared. Instead of a big downturn, the US might experience a slew of little ones, or a “rolling” series of micro-recessions where different sectors (like housing right now) experience a downturn at different times. But even in the worst-case scenario, one where there’s an actual recession, further major waves of layoffs are increasingly unlikely, Kathryn A. Edwards writes in Bloomberg Opinion. “The tradeoff between short-term cost-cutting and human capital appears to be changing, as qualified workers become harder to find and hire,” she said.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy traveled to London, Paris and Brussels this week to thank European leaders for their help fighting Russia, and to ask for more—specifically fighter jets. Ukraine’s allies have been reluctant to donate jets, partly to avoid escalation. The UK said it would provide more training, though the European Union made no commitments. Vladimir Putin followed through on his threat to slash oil output to retaliate against import bans and price caps.