George Stephanopoulos Presses Treasury Secretary on Whether Recession Is ‘Inevitable’: Are You and Biden Are ‘Too Optimistic?’
EXCERPT:
STEPHANOPOULOS: "It turns out that you and the President, maybe even the Fed, were too optimistic about inflation last year. Concerned that may be happening again with your suggestion that a recession is not inevitable?"
YELLEN: "Well, inflation is really unacceptably high. Part of the reason is Russia’s war on Ukraine has boosted energy and food prices in the United States and globally. It's important to recognize that the United States is certainly not the only advanced economy suffering from high inflation. We see it in the UK, we see it in France, Germany, Italy, and the causes of it are global, not local. Supply chain snarls partly resulting from lockdowns in China are also boosting inflation. And so, these factors are unlikely to diminish immediately, but over time I certainly expect inflation to come down and I think it's possible to have that happen in the context of a strong labor market, maintaining that."
