While pundits have predicted a recession in the United States for well over a year, the U.S. economy has been growing at a steady clip since the third quarter of 2020. Following historical stimulus programs to bring the economy out of a pandemic-induced trauma starting in March 2020, culminating in the falsely named "Inflation Reduction Act" of 2022, inflation reached double digits. Unemployment is at record lows, and labor markets remain stubbornly tight. The Federal Reserve has been coordinating a historic tightening of monetary policies, raising interest rates by 500 basis points in less than a year, while shrinking its balance sheet and ending "quantitative easing" as we knew it.