During an interview with CNN aired on Tuesday’s edition of “CNN Tonight,” President Joe Biden said people shouldn’t prepare for a recession because people who are predicting one have been saying so “every six months” and he doesn’t believe there will be a recession, but “If it is, it will be a very slight recession, that is, we’ll move down slightly.” But he doesn’t “anticipate” a slight recession.
Host Jake Tapper asked, “JP Morgan Chase CEO [Jamie Dimon] said the U.S. is likely to enter a recession in the next nine months. Bank of America says the U.S. could start losing 175,000 jobs a month. Gas prices are on the rise again. Should the American people prepare for a recession?”
Biden responded, “No. Look, they’ve been saying this now how — every six months, they say this. Every six months, they look down at the next six months and say what’s going to happen. It hasn’t happened yet. It hasn’t — there has — there’s no guarantee that there’s going to be a — I don’t think there will be a recession. If it is, it will be a very slight recession, that is, we’ll move down slightly. We’ll — look, think about what’s happened. We have done more — we’re in a better position than any other major country in the world, economically and politically. We still have real problems, but look what we’ve got done. We passed so much legislation that significantly makes a point about, you know, for example, the American Rescue Plan, the legislation to deal with inflation — the Inflation [Reduction] Act. We moved along — I mean, there’s so much that’s been accomplished that the idea that there’s something — there’s an automaticity to recession is just not there. They keep — they’ve been predicting this on and off for the last –.”
Tapper then cut in to counter, “But you just said that a slight recession is possible.”
Biden responded, “It is possible. Look, it’s possible. I don’t anticipate it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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