Has the private sector been in a recession for the past few years?

By Mike Switzer

Published April 1, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT

Joey Von Nessen, chief economist at the Darla Moore School of Business at USC in Columbia, S.C.

Our new Treasury Secretary in Washington claimed recently that the strong economic growth our country has experienced over the past few years was actually misleading and that the private sector “has been in a recession”. The economists we’ve been talking to haven’t mentioned anything along these lines so today we are bringing one of them back to help us unravel all of this. Mike Switzer interviews Joey Von Nessen, chief economist at the Darla Moore School of Business at USC in Columbia, S.C.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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