Santelli on GDP Contraction: ‘Goodbye to All the Pandemic Spending’ — ‘That Parade Is Over’

CNBC’s Rick Santelli on Thursday reacted to the Burea of Economic Analysis reporting that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022 after being expected to grow 1.1%.

CNBC “Squawk Box” host Joe Kernen warned that with the fears of a recession amid “pretty serious inflation,” there would be worries of “stagflation.”

Santelli said “goodbye to all the pandemic spending,” which he argued not only boosted inflation but also damaged the GDP.

“There’s lots of one-offs and distortions, but it doesn’t matter,” Kernen stated. “When you had heard people start to talk about recession fears, and then you get a negative print on GDP, you add into that just pretty serious inflation in the backdrop, and then you’re immediately going to hear … stagflation.”

“We called that a long time ago, Joe,” Santelli replied.

He added, “When was it? Let me think — June of last year when I thought the Fed was making a mistake, and everybody thought I was crazy. Little early on that. You know, Joe, when I look at this chapter, it’s a long goodbye. Goodbye to all the pandemic spending, all the mountains of money that boosted not only inflation, obviously, but all the other growth metrics, GDP metrics. That parade is over.”

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