by John Carney
Breitbart.com
We Did Not Import Our Way to a Recession
The headline GDP number was disappointing. The economy contracted in the first quarter of 2025, the first decline in real GDP since 2022. That was enough to spark another round of recession hand-wringing across Wall Street and the financial press.
But the details tell a different story—one of resilient consumers, strong business demand, and inflation that has come to a halt.
The contraction was driven almost entirely by a surge in imports. That widened the trade deficit and dragged down net exports, a standard but misleading quirk of GDP math. Real final sales to domestic private purchasers—a much cleaner read on U.S. demand—rose at a healthy clip. That’s a far better measure of momentum than the top-line GDP figure.