On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein stated that economic numbers “are wholly inconsistent with a recessionary call in near-time.”
Host Martha MacCallum asked, “You said back at the end of December that recession’s not inevitable. And yet, we hear from Alan Greenspan and from J.P. Morgan that they think it is inevitable in 2023. Have you changed your mind?”
Bernstein responded, “No. I like where I am on that over/under better than where they are. We’re today talking about an unemployment rate of 3.5%. That’s close to a 50-year low. We’re looking at job gains in December-to-December, the president’s second year in office, 4.5 million. That’s the second-highest year on record of job gains.”
Bernstein added, “[T]he numbers that I’m giving you, Martha, are wholly inconsistent with a recessionary call in near-time. … And then if you think about our 2023 agenda, implementing the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, that’s more investment in America and working families to come. So, we like where we are, we like the momentum.”
He also stated that the economy is slowing, but they expect it to slow to “steady, stable growth.”
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