How recessions haunted three presidents, and how two others recovered

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the U.S. shrunk between April and June, according to data released Thursday morning by the Commerce Department, marking the second-straight quarter of economic contraction.

While two straight quarters of negative economic growth have long been used as a rule of thumb to determine when the U.S. is in recession and is the formal threshold for a recession in other countries, economists in the U.S. consider a broader range of data when determining if the U.S. is in recession.

President Biden and other senior figures, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, are arguing...