It would help if you explained what they changed it from and to and when maybe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/leonlabrecque/2019/03/25/what-i...
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/it-depends-what-the-de...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/21/fact-chec...
Acknowledgement as the 'popular definition' by St Louis fed in 2009 which uses an even less generous definition than two quarters to define it: "“significant decline in economic activity spreading across the economy, lasting more than a few months.”"
https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/pageone-economics/...
Spin cycle:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/29/white-house-goes-on-offense-...
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/recession-biden-yellen-d...
https://fortune.com/2022/07/29/wikipedia-recession-definitio...
https://dailycaller.com/2022/07/28/wikipedia-change-definiti...
Less than you seem to think. The Fed, SSA, SBA, FDIC and CFPB are independent agencies. Many data are provided by private sources, e.g. ADP. And the statistical agencies, while legally dependent, are fiercely independent and competitive (i.e. when one starts being co-opted, the others publicly disagree).
Moreover, there are hundreds of billions of private dollars which take these data seriously. Is every one of them is in on the conspiracy or duped?
Simply because something is claimed independent does not mean it is immune to politics and human nature.
You just disproved your own claim. The government/ fed definition of recession has not changed since 2009. You claimed it changed in 2022.
The 2009 link says "The committee considers a wide range of indicators with particular emphasis on payroll employment and several measures of domestic production and income, such as gross domestic product, gross domestic income, and industrial."
https://investor.vanguard.com/investor-resources-education/n...
Do you think they are also part of this vast conspiracy to trick you, or is it possible you are just confused and never understood economics or the definition of recession as well as you thought?
Here's Fidelity in december 2012 "We do not believe that the US is in recession, but instead experiencing a late-cycle expansion, which has historically led to positive returns for stocks and bonds."
https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/wealth-management-i...
Is Fidelity also part of a vast conspiracy to trick you, or is it more plausible you just don't understand economics so well?
Maybe the issue isn't so much that the definition has changed, as modern events have revealed you never understood the definition in the first place, or that 2009 paper you cited?