vibecession

plural vibecessions

1. neologismA general state of societal pessimism about the economy, independently of whether a recession is currently happening.

   "I think people have gotten angrier," she said. "I think we're actually in a worse vibecession now."

   2023 November 17, Jeanna Smialek, Jim Tankersley, quoting Kyla Scanlon, “Biden Faces Economic Challenges as Cost-of-Living Despair Floods TikTok”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Dec 2023

   4 more examples

   The concept of a vibecession may feel like a cop-out. But it’s a good starting point for understanding where we’re really at.

   2022 August 13, Kevin T. Dugan, “Are We in a Recession or a Vibecession?”, in Intelligencer, New York, N.Y.: New York Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2022

   So, this is my favorite theory: The vibecession prevented the real recession. In medicine, weaker versions of a virus, like the flu, inoculate people against the real thing. By analogy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his melancholy minions essentially administered an injection of mostly safe gloom into the economic bloodstream, which seems to have triggered just the right level of macroeconomic immune response to reduce inflation without causing a downturn.

   2023 August 3, Derek Thompson, “How the Recession Doomers Got the U.S. Economy So Wrong”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Oct 2023

   Americans are gloomy about the state of the economy. Since the covid-19 pandemic began, consumer sentiment has been in the doldrums, hitting its lowest level ever in June 2022. Such negativity has prompted claims that the country is suffering a "vibecession"—although the market appears healthy, good vibes are lacking.

   2023 September 7, “The pandemic has broken a closely followed survey of sentiment”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2023

   Not that long ago, liberal commentators in the Biden era spent years racking their brains to explain what was often called the “vibe-cession” — the reality that public sentiment about the economy seemed so much bleaker than the conventional measures suggested. The vibes have collapsed on Trump, too, and quite a lot of that collapse looks tied up with Iran.

   [2026 September 23, David Wallace-Wells, “The Mistake That May Finally Get the Republican Base to Ditch Trump”, in The New York Times, →ISSN