Recession Indicator Meme Hats

The recession indicator meme has outlived several recessions that never arrived. It started around 2023 as a way to read economic doom into anything culturally downmarket and never stopped: Lady Gaga returning to pop, flash mobs, the ice bucket challenge, knee-high Converse, and this year a box of candy hearts printed with SPLIT RENT and BUY IN BULK. CNN has covered it. So has the Daily Dot. Economists keep pointing out we are not in a recession, which is not the point and never was. The point is that the vibes are off and the numbers refuse to confirm it, so people diagnose the economy from haircuts instead. Vibecession is the word for the gap. Recession pop is the soundtrack. The head terms get block letters, because that is how a label works. The observations get lowercase serif, because this hat is a recession indicator is a shrug and setting a shrug in bold caps ruins it. Eight designs. Buying one is arguably evidence. Buying two is conclusive.