Americans are getting flashbacks to 2008 as tariffs stoke recession fears

A few weeks ago, when Kiki Rough felt more and more concerned about the state of the economy, I was thinking of thinking about previous periods of financial difficulties.

A rough thought in the skills he learned to make the groceries hard in the difficult times accompanied by economic recessions. Facing similar feelings of uncertainty about the country’s financial future, began to make video guides for recipes of published kitchen books Duration RESO Recoves, dependents and previous Fridays.

The 28 -year -old told followers that she is not a professional chef, but that Insead won her stripes when learning to cook while she was in food coupons. From the yellow and black kitchen of Rough in the suburbs of Chicago, it teaches the spectators how to make cheap foods and replacements in the home for articles such as Strudel breakfast or donuts. She reminds people of the people who replace the ingredients with alternatives they already have in the pantry.

“I keep watching this joke on and again in the comments: the old poors that teach the new poors,” Rough told CNBC. “We only need to share knowledge at this time because everyone is scared, and learning will give people security to navigate in thesis situations.”

The independent consultant’s videos quickly found an audience on Tiktok and Instagram. Between both platforms, he has won 350,000 followers and obtained around 21 million visits in the videos during the last month, according to his counting.

The announcement of President Donald Trump of Tarlier Broad and steep in early April has increased the fears of the economy of the United States that are inclined in a recession in recent weeks. As Americans like Rough are increasingly concerned along the way ahead, they date back to the tips and tricks they used to scrape for dark financial chapters such as the global financial crisis that exploded in 2008.

Google is predicting an increase in search volumes this month for the relationship of the terms with the recession that came to define at the end of the 2000s. Searches of the “global financial crisis” are expected to reach levels not since 2010, while consultations on the “great recession” are scheduled to be at its highest rate at the beginning of the Covid pandemic.

In Tiktok, a group of millennials and gen xers has assumed the roles of the ancient brothers, offering flashbacks and advice to younger people on how to pinch cents. Some Gene Zers have given other places to obtain information about what a recession can feel like this stage of life, having too young bone to feel the complete effects of the financial crisis.

“This is potentially, at least on a large scale, the first time millennials can be the” experts, “said Scott Sills, a 33 -year -old market in Louisiana. “We are experts in taking our backs from under us.”

The tips are a trip along the path of memory at the end of the Aughts tail. The cheap escapes to Florida were the standard instead of lush trips abroad. They had folders for receipts in case the purchases of large tickets went on sale later. Casual business outfits were common in social events because they could not pay multiple clothing styles.

The chasqueras were a Stapper dinner given their relative affordability, which led a creator to declare that “they know” the great recession. They drink “Jungo de la Jungla” at the house parties, a mixture of cheap cheap spirits and mixers, which are not lists of cocktails in the bars.

“There are things that I did not realize were” recession indicators “The first time I thought there were only trends,” said Ma Lakewood, writer and professional fundraising in the north of the state of New York. “Now, you can see that it comes from 10 miles away.”

Without a doubt, part of the speech has focused on how inflationary pressures have made a handful of missing thesis tricks. Some content creators pointed out that the federal minimum wage has stayed at $ 7.25 per hour since 2009 despite the cost of life that is triggered.

Kimberly Casamento Recently Began A Tiktok Series Walking Viewers Through Recipes From A Cookbook That Was Focused on Affordable Meals Published in 2009. The New Jersey-Based Digital Media Said She’s Found Costs for What Were Betwere Betwoning Lowating Ande Ande Ande Ande Ande Ande Ande Ande Ande BETHADING AND BETWEE’S BETWEE BETHADING AND BETHADING AND BETWEE BETWEE BETHADING AND BETWEE BETHADING AND BETWEE BETHADING AND BETWEE BETADED AND BETWEE BETWEEN BETADING AND BETWENING BETWEEN, BETWEEN BETWEE BETWEEN BETWE Betwee Betidered and Betwee Betidered and Betwee Betider and Nere among those who shared price changes, the 33 -year -old offers viewers some tips on how to keep the low costs.

“Every aspect of life is so expectation that it is difficult for anyone to survive,” Cassation said. “If you can reduce the cost of your food by $ 5, then it’s a victory.”

This type of communal knowledge exchange is the common duration of the economic adjustment of the belt, according to Megan Way, associated teacher at Babson College who studies the family and intergenerational economy. While conversations on how to reduce costs or make meals typically stretch among neighbors at the end of the 2000s, Way says that it makes sense that they would now develop in the digital square with the risk of social networks.

“It’s very human to get to others when things feel uncertain and try to gain their experience,” Way said. “You can really make a difference to feel that you are advancing a little prepared. One of the sausage things for an economy is absolute fear.”

Way said that Americans resort to the great recession of a guide because the recession was so shocking and widely felt. However, she said that there are key differences between that economic situation and what the United States faces today, such as the absence of uncollectible debt that caused the real estate market accident.

Even so, he said that today a wide uncertainty is felt on several fronts, either linked to the economy, geopolitics or internal policy priorities, such as cutting the federal workforce or limiting immigration. That can rekindle the feeling of unpredictability about what will bring the future that was the duration of the great recession, Way said.

In 2025, it is clear that the economic confidence among the average Americans is rapidly sour. The consumption feeling index of the University of Michigan registered one of its sausage readings in more than seven decades this month.

With that negative economic perspective comes the growing stress. When Lukas Battle made a satiric Tiktok about feeling that the divorces were increasingly common at the time of the great recession, the comments of the 27 -year -old were full of people who spoke with a show. (The divorce of thought has been seen as a cultural seal of the financial crisis, the data show that the rate really decreased the duration of this period).

“There is a second round of divorces while we talk,” Battle said.

That is one of the various parallel users of social networks that have drawn between recent years and today. When videos of a group arose, dancing to the successful song of Doechii “Anseyiety”, several common in X reported feeling déjà vu when Flashmob’s performances were common.

DisneyThe restart of the animated program “Phineas and Ferb”, which originally premiered at the end of the 2000s, similarly, put the era of it.

“Recession Pop”, a phrase that refers mainly to the subgenre of modern music that dropped the world financial crisis, has caught a second wave during the past year, since Americans held inflation and high interest rates.

Now, in 2025, as the choir of voices that projects a recession ahead grows, pop music has some family sounds.

In 2008, artists such as Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry appeared regularly on music lists. Both Cyrus and Gaga have released new songs this year. Perry started a world tour this week.

“It’s almost a permission to feel good, either through a song or something,” said Sills, the seller in Louisiana. “Not necessarily ignore the problems that are here, but maybe find some kind, joy or fun in the midst of everything.”