Clinton's last treasury secretary, Larry Summers, made it official on Sunday. Appearing on Meet the Press, he said the Biden Recession is upon us.
Given that the economy contracted 1.5% in the first quarter, the recession likely is already here.He said, "Look, nothing is certain and all economic forecasts have uncertainty. My best guess is that a recession is ahead. 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.
"And so I think the likelihood is that in order to do what's necessary to stop inflation the Fed is going to raise interest rates enough that the economy will slip into recession. And I think that view, which was not a common view a couple months ago, is now the view of a number of statistical models and the view of a range of forecasters, and I think will increasingly become a consensus view."
Bravo for admitting what no one else in DC seems willing to admit: Biden's spending-palooza wrecked the most prosperous economy in 50 years.
But Summers is an economist and a president emeritus of Harvard, which greatly diminishes his understanding of what needs to be done.
He wants to cut the tariffs in half, which of course would hurt American manufacturing and it would be a godsend to Red China.
He also wants to kneecap Trump's tax cuts, which created the best economy since the Archies sang Sugar, Sugar.
And while saying we need to up production of "fossil fuels' (there is no evidence that oil comes from dinosaurs, sorry), Summers pushed renewables, which liberals have pushed for decades and which will never replace oil and natural gas.
Summers did a better job speaking in London on Monday when he admitted the only known cure for double-digit inflation is a recession.
He said, "We need five years of unemployment above 5% to contain inflation—in other words, we need two years of 7.5% unemployment or five years of 6% unemployment or one year of 10% unemployment."
I don't think we get a choice. I believe we will get five years of 10% unemployment.
I hope I am wrong.