Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said Monday that the potential for a recession was “nearly 50/50.”
“I said [Kasie Hunt] @CNN I think there is a real possibility of a recession today,” Summers I said in a social platform thread x.
“I would have said a few months ago that a recession is really unlikely this year. Now, it's probably not 50/50, but it's approaching 50/50. There's one central reason: completely counter-effective economic policy,” he added.
Stock markets on Monday suffered a severe loss amid growing unrest in the US surrounding the economy, bringing Dow Jones' industrial average down 890 points, down 2.1%.
Since the beginning of the month, stocks have been steadily declining due to overwhelming economic data and the Topsy Turn Trump administration's tariff announcement.
On Monday, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said, “We had two negative quarters about Joe, Joe, Joe, and the conversation about the recession, that was once a Biden recession and it wasn't a recession.”
“What happens is that the first quarter will squeal into a positive category, and if everyone sees the reality of tax cuts, the second quarter will take off,” Hassett told CNBC's Joe Körnen in an interview.
Starting Monday, the Ontario government is paying a 25% extra charge for electricity exports to three US provinces in response to US tariffs targeting Canada.
“The emphasis on all of tariffs and ambiguity and uncertainty has cooled demand and caused prices to rise,” Summers said in an X-thread on Monday. “We're at the worst in both worlds. We're concerned about inflation and economic downturns, and more uncertainty about the future and that's slowing everything down.”
Oka reached out to the White House for comments.
