Former Federal Reserve economist Claudia Sahm passionately defended the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous management of the economy in a Bloomberg op-ed. Now, she is desperately trying to soften the blow after her “Sahm Rule” embarrassed President Joe Biden.
Devised in 2019, the “Sahm Rule” is used as a recession indicator. It stipulates that recession begins when the three-month moving average of unemployment "rises by 0.50 percentage points or more relative to the minimum of the three-month averages from the previous 12 months." In July, Biden’s unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, triggering the so-called rule.
Months earlier, Sahm wholeheartedly defended the Biden-Harris economic record in a February 2024 Bloomberg column headlined, “Bidenomics Is an Easy Sell If Presented Broadly Enough.” Now that her own rule threatens the reputation of the Biden administration months before a presidential election, Sahm wants the press to know that the Sahm Rule is just “not working like it usually does.”
Sahm now wants Americans to believe that this time just doesn’t count for some reason and no recession is coming. This about-face has been used to soften the blow for Democrats by media sources such as PBS, Axios and Politico. Bloomberg News, on the other hand, noted that the Sahm Rule “has a perfect track record over the past half-century.”
In her Bloomberg column, Sahm defended Biden, predicting a very different future than the one Americans are currently facing. “The reality is that Bidenomics has brought groundbreaking policies that have already benefited the economy and will continue to do so well into the future.”
Sahm had no harsh words for how Biden’s massive spending has fueled inflation. Instead, she praised his Inflation Reduction Act and other examples of expensive legislation. She followed this by ludicrously referring to Biden’s “wins on inflation.”
To do so, Sahm credited Biden, who has hampered future energy production at every turn, for American crude oil production and praised him for massively draining the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Sahm went on to barely (and dismissively) address the national debt, which would surpass $35 trillion only a few months later. Despite specifically mentioning expensive legislation signed by Biden, Sahm wrote in the article, “One can debate whether the federal debt is on an ‘unsustainable path,’ but claims that Bidenomics made it worse are incorrect.”
She ended her article with a cheerleading line that would age like milk: “The bottom line is that Bidenomics deserves much credit for getting us to the other side of the pandemic in a better place and with a vision for more progress. It’s time to fight for it.”
Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report fairly on how Bidenomics is crippling the American economy.
