We've finally moved out of the "this isn't happening" phase to the "it's happening but only a little bit" phase:

The Federal Reserve's staff is more worried about the U.S. economy tipping into a recession after the recent banking crisis, the minutes from the central bank's meeting in March reveal.

Economists at the Federal Reserve said they expect a "mild" recession later this year, an escalation from their previous assessment.

The slide is reportedly expected to begin later this year, with recovering from it lasting around two years.

That doesn't exactly sound "mild" to me (especially since we've been dipping our toes in recession since LAST SUMMER).

Silicon Valley Bank, the nation's 16th largest bank, collapsed in March and was taken over by the government. Signature Bank, the 29th-largest bank in the U.S., followed suit just days later, marking the largest bank failure since the 2008 crisis.

Nothing to see here!

Despite the troubling outlook from Federal Reserve staff, the central bank has aimed to curb inflation. In February, year-over-year inflation was 6%. The data released on Wednesday marked the ninth consecutive month of smaller price hikes.

On the flip side, the White House is insisting that "recent economic indicators are not consistent with a recession or even a pre-recession."

That's probably because they changed the definition like good little commies:

Expert economists call this type of analysis the old "there's an election next year and we have to make sure we're painting the rosiest picture possible for our team" approach.