Understanding the economy is a complicated task, and even the experts are struggling to answer seemingly simple questions like "Are we on the brink of a recession?" or "Why isn't inflation falling faster?"
Many have resorted to the use of metaphor to convey the current complexity of the economy.
It's a communications tactic that some Federal Reserve officials have long favored. In the early 1980s, Nancy Teeters, the first woman appointed to the Federal Reserve Board, came up with an apt metaphor to explain why she disagreed with steep rate hikes implemented by then-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.
Her colleagues were "pulling the financial fabric of this country so tight that it's going to rip," she said. "Once you tear a piece of fabric, it's very difficult, almost impossible, to put it back together again," she added, before remarking that "none of these guys has ever sewn anything in his life."
These days, economists and analysts are turning to increasingly outlandish metaphors to help translate their thoughts.
Here are some of the most interesting descriptors used recently and what they mean:
Wile E. Coyote
If you think back to Saturday morning cartoons, you may remember the never-ending, and mostly futile, chase between Wile E. Coyote and his nemesis, Road Runner. That pursuit often ended with Wile E. running off a cliff and into mid-air.
The toons were fun sources of entertainment in our salad years, but former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says they now double as a case study for the Fed and the economy.
"The [Federal Reserve's] process of bringing down inflation will bring on a recession at some stage, as it almost always has in the past," Summers told CNN last week.
And for the US economy, it could likely mean a "Wile E. Coyote moment," Summers said — if we run off the cliff, gravity will eventually win out.
"The economy could hit an air pocket in a few months," he said.
Antibiotics
When describing the state of the economy, Summers doesn't just rely on Looney Tunes. He also borrows from the medical community.
While describing why the Fed can't end its rate hike regimen when inflation shows signs of showing, Summers has compared higher interest rates to medicine for a country sick with high inflation. The entire dose must be taken for the treatment to fully work, he says.
"We've all had the experience of taking a course of drugs and giving up, stopping the drugs, before the course was exhausted, simply because we felt better. And then, whatever infection we had came back and it was harder to fight the second time," Summers told Boston's NPR news station WBUR in February.
For what it's worth, Before the Bell is also guilty of using this one.
Fog report
We may be driving in the fog, landing a plane in the fog or even just walking in it.
What's important in this oft-used scenario is that it's hard to see and we're doing something that typically requires clear visibility.
Clients "facing the fog of uncertainty in financial markets, economic growth and geopolitics," should "avoid unnecessary lane changes," and "allow extra time to reach your destination," advised Goldman Sachs analysts earlier this year.
It's essentially a fancy way of saying that no one really knows what's going on in this economy. Instead of attempting to find a way out of the chaos, investors should slow down, stay the course and wait for recovery.
Edibles
Late last year, investment analyst Peter Boockvar used a semi-illicit metaphor to explain why he thought the Fed might be over-tightening the economy into recession. He compared the Fed to an inexperienced consumer of weed gummies, which can take a long time to kick in.
During that waiting period, an eager consumer may think the drugs aren't working and eat more before the effects of the first dose even set in. They then inevitably find themselves way too stoned and feeling not-so-great.
Boockvar was careful to note that he himself does not indulge in this practice, by the way.
Storm chasing
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon should receive an honorary degree in meteorology for his recessionary weather predictions.
The Big Bank exec has repeatedly referred to economic recession as a storm gathering on the horizon — occasionally he'll update the public on how far away and how bad that storm is.
Last summer Dimon spooked markets when he compared a possible upcoming recession to a "hurricane." In November, he downgraded it to a "storm."
By January, his forecast was simply "storm clouds," adding that he probably should never have used the term "hurricane."
Polyurethane
Rick Rieder, BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, has likened the economy to a bendable piece of plastic. Much like the economy, he wrote, polyurethane, "displays flexibility and adaptability, but also durability and strength."
He added that "the material's ability to be stretched, bent, stressed and flexed without breaking, while in fact returning to its original condition, is what makes it so chemically unique. In recent years the US economy has displayed a remarkable resilience to stresses and an extraordinary ability to adapt to changing conditions."
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