Asked Tuesday about recent comments by President Trump’s former top economic adviser Larry Kudlow, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she and other forecasters were wrong about the U.S. economy heading into a recession. Admitted.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Missouri) asked Yellen about Kudlow’s comments on Fox News earlier this month during a House Financial Services Committee hearing. At the time, Kudlow issued a serious rebuke following his recent strong employment numbers.
“Do you agree with Mr. Kudlow that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction?” Cleaver asked.
“I absolutely believe we are heading in the right direction,” Yellen responded. “Our growth is very strong. The labor market is at least as strong as it was before the pandemic. This is the first time in 50 years that unemployment has been below 4%. And job creation remains very strong. .”
Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council during the Trump administration, spoke on fox news Earlier this month, he said he was “wrong about the economic slowdown and recession.”
“So was the whole prediction fraternity,” he added. “Everyone was wrong.”
The U.S. economy added 353,000 jobs in January, bringing the unemployment rate to 3.7%, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.
January’s employment statistics far exceeded the Wall Street Journal’s forecast of an increase in employment of 185,000 people and an unemployment rate of 3.8% by economists.
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