WH’s Deese: ‘The United States Is in a Better Position than Any Other Country in the World Right Now’

White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese on Monday touted the state of the U.S. economy compared to the rest of the world.

Deese noted the June jobs report showing “historic job growth” and said the numbers were “not the marks of an economy in recession.” He asserted that the “United States is in a better position than any other country in the world right now” to drive consumer prices down.

“It was just about two weeks ago we got the jobs report for June, and you saw that in the second quarter of this year, we had historic job growth — close to 400,000 jobs a month created in this economy in the second quarter. That’s good news,” Deese explained. “And it reflects the fact that we have a historic labor market right now, and we also have household balance sheets that continue to be strong record-low numbers of mortgage delinquencies, the record-low numbers of credit card delinquencies. So, these are not the marks of an economy in recession.”

“What I can tell you is two things,” he added. “One, the United States is in a better position than any other country in the world right now to drive that transition and make that transition effectively. You see our strength internationally; you see it in the strength of our currency. We are in a better place than almost any other country. And number two, if we make these right policy choices, it will matter. It will make a difference. It will bring prices down more quickly and give us a better chance to drive that transition effectively.”

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