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Planet Money

How economists (and TikTok) know if a recession is coming

21 May 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What signs indicate a recession on social media?

52.614 - 61.697

Little burger, little fry, and I believe a small drink, which honestly is basically a kid's meal. Baby, you know what's bad when Five Guys is actually rolling out combo meal.

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61.777 - 65.458 Claudia Song

Now, Five Guys did tell us little does not mean kid's size, but like, whatever, you get the idea.

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Example number two comes from TikTok user Bryce Gruber.

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69.64 - 78.603 Bryce Gruber

Recession? I can tell you if there's going to be a recession. If you go to the bar and there are like little dishes of wasabi peas out, recession, you're

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Presumably because those, I guess, are relatively cheap as bar snacks go is the indicator. Yeah. And example three.

87.341 - 91.504 Elisha Berman

No, you don't understand. Alex Earle's bun at Coachella is a recession indicator.

91.524 - 109.818 Claudia Song

Oh, correct. TikTok user Elisha Berman. I did not understand and Googled every part of this. So social media influencer Alex Earle, typically very put together hair situation, went to California music festival Coachella wearing very messy hair situation called babysitter buns.

110.218 - 125.566 Elisha Berman

There are only three times where it's appropriate to wear this bun. One is you just threw up in the bathroom at the club. Two is you're a literal babysitter, hence the name, the babysitter bun. And three is when you can't afford to get your roots done. So you tie your hair up in a messy bun to hide the fact that you have a bad haircut and three inch roots.

125.907 - 133.571 Claudia Song

Look, if lots of people do suddenly want to talk or even joke about recession indicators, we are here for that.

Chapter 2: What are the TikTok recession indicators?

455.433 - 474.079 Claudia Song

Now, the technical rule specifications are when the average of the three month rolling unemployment rate goes up by at least point five percent compared to the 12 month low. But also, look, it is completely OK to just remember when unemployment goes up by a certain amount. That's fine.

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So Claudia's working group, they publish their book and there is a chapter with her unemployment rule.

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Yeah, I mean, in the chapter, it didn't have a name.

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It did need a name, maybe.

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I showed up at the launch event for the book, and the organizers started calling it the Psalm Rule, and I was, like, panicking in the audience.

491.697 - 492.578 Claudia Song

Why were you panicking?

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I don't know. It doesn't, well, it just, I was just expressing a pattern in the data. Like, I didn't make the unemployment rate have these fluctuations. I don't know.

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Exactly.

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She may not have wanted it, but all the same, the SOM rule was born.

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