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President Joe Biden remains reluctant to accept the opinion of some economists who suggest that a recession is imminent. This Monday, when a reporter asked for his opinion on the matter, the Democratic leader responded by telling her that it “sounded like a Republican politician” and asking him to “not make things up.”
In a video posted on the web, Biden is seen being briefly questioned by a reporter while he was out for a walk with his family. The reporter seizes the president’s attention and addresses him: “Economists are saying a recession is even more likely than ever.”
“Not the majority of them [economists] are saying that,” Biden responded. “Come on, don’t make things up, okay? Now you sound like a Republican politician.”
Immediately, the president said he was joking and answered the question by saying he “doesn’t believe” a recession is inevitable. He indicated that he had spoken with economist and former Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration, Larry Summers, and that his conclusion was that “there’s nothing inevitable about a recesion.”
Biden then seemed to divert the course of his response to refer to possible changes in Medicare that would result in reducing the cost of insulin, as well as increasing taxes to the “corporate area.”
However, President Biden’s words do not seem to coincide with the economist’s opinion. Summers was interviewed on NBC to talk about a possible contraction of the economy.
“My best guess is that a recession is ahead,” Summers said in the interview, in direct contradiction to what Biden said. “I base that on the fact that we haven’t had a situation like the present with inflation above 4% and unemployment beyond 4% without a recession following within a year or two.”
Summers believes that in order to stop inflation, the Fed will most likely have to raise interest rates “enough that the economy will slip into a recession.”
Tomás Lugo, journalist and writer. Born in Venezuela and graduated in Social Communication. Has written for international media outlets. Currently living in Colombia // Tomás Lugo, periodista y articulista. Nacido en Venezuela y graduado en Comunicación Social. Ha escrito para medios internacionales. Actualmente reside en Colombia.