Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers disagreed with current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and said a recession is most definitely on the way.
He told CNN’s Dana Bash:
“I think the optimists were wrong a year ago in saying we’d have no inflation, and I think they’re wrong now in being — if anyone’s highly confident that we’re going to avoid recession.”
Larry Summers on CNN disagrees with Yellen’s call that a recession is not in the works:
“I think the optimists were wrong a year ago in saying we'd have no inflation, and I think they're wrong now in being — if anyone's highly confident that we're going to avoid recession.”
— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) June 12, 2022
And, “it’s more likely than not we’ll have a recession within the next two years”:
"It's more likely than not we'll have a recession within the next two years."
Former Treasury Secretary @LHSummers tells @DanaBashCNN why he disagrees with current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's projection that a recession is not on the horizon. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/gzrR3B6TBy
— CNN (@CNN) June 12, 2022
What’s troubling about that statement, of course, is that this means slow growth for the next two years or more! Here’s the entire exchange:
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Bash: Secretary Yellen, who has the job you once had said this week that, quote, There is nothing to suggest a recession is in the works. Do you agree with that?
Summers: No, I don’t.
Bash: You think a recession is in the works?
Summers: I think when inflation is as high as it is right now and unemployment is as low as it is right now, it’s almost always been followed within two years by inflation, by recession. I look at what’s happening in the stock and bond markets. I look at where consumer sentiment is. I think there’s certainly a risk of recession in the next year. And I think given where we’ve gotten to it’s more likely than not that we’ll have a recession within the next two years. That is something we can manage. We’ve had them for the whole history of the country. We need to be prepared and to. Respond quickly. If and when it happens. But I think the optimists were wrong a year ago in saying we’d have no inflation, and I think they’re wrong now. If anyone’s highly confident that we’re going to avoid recession.
But Summers also said during the CNN interview that “banana Republicans” are linked to our current economic woes.
“If you can’t trust the country’s government, why should you trust its money?” he asked:
Fmr. Treasury Sec. @LHSummers: "I think the banana Republicans who are saying that what happened on Jan. 6 was nothing or OK are undermining the basic credibility of our country's institutions… if you can't trust the country's govt, why should you trust its money?" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/MeRvbb2nvn
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) June 12, 2022
Well, we’ll give him points for trying to get back in the good graces of his Dem pals, but this is nonsense and he knows it:
Told @DanaBashCNN @CNN today: The banana Republicans who are saying what happened on January 6 was nothing or it was ok are undermining our country’s institutions. That in turn feeds through for inflation because if you can’t trust the country’s government, why trust it’s money?
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) June 12, 2022
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