{"id":227368,"date":"2019-08-18T23:11:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T03:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=227368"},"modified":"2019-08-18T23:11:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T03:11:48","slug":"trump-dismisses-worries-of-recession-says-economy-is-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/08\/18\/trump-dismisses-worries-of-recession-says-economy-is-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump dismisses worries of recession, says economy is strong"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President of the United States Donald J. Trump at CPAC 2017 February 24th 2017 by Michael Vadon (Photo<\/a>: Michael Vadon\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. \u2014 President Donald Trump said Sunday the economy is \u201cdoing very well\u201d and dismissed concerns of recession, offering an optimistic outlook after last week’s steep drop in the financial markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think we’re having a recession,\u201d Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington from his New Jersey golf club. \u201cWe’re doing tremendously well. Our consumers are rich. I gave a tremendous tax cut and they’re loaded up with money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, also played down fears of a looming recession and predicted the economy will perform well in the second half of 2019. In Sunday television interviews, he said that consumers are seeing higher wages and are able to spend and save more.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don’t see a recession,\u201d Kudlow said. \u201cWe’re doing pretty darn well in my judgment. Let’s not be afraid of optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n

A strong economy is key to Trump’s reelection prospects. Consumer confidence has dropped 6.4% since July. The president has spent most of the week at his golf club in New Jersey with much of his tweeting focused on talking up the economy.<\/p>\n

Kudlow acknowledged a slowing energy sector, but said low interest rates will help housing, construction and auto sales.<\/p>\n

Kudlow also defended the president’s use of tariffs on goods coming from China. Before he joined the administration, Kudlow was known for opposing tariffs and promoting free trade during his career as an economic analyst. Kudlow said Trump has taught him and others that the \u201cChina story has to be changed and reformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot let China pursue these unfair and unreciprocal trading practices,\u201d Kudlow said.<\/p>\n

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said the U.S. needed to work with allies to hold China accountable on trade. He said he fears Trump is driving the global economy into a recession.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis current trade war that the president has entered our country into is not working,\u201d O’Rourke said. \u201cIt is hammering the hell out of farmers across this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, the Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark rate \u2014 which affects many loans for households and businesses \u2014 by a quarter-point to a range of 2% to 2.25%. It’s the first rate cut since December 2008 during the depths of the Great Recession. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed that the Fed was worried about the consequences of Trump’s trade war and sluggish economies overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWeak global growth and trade tensions are having an effect on the U.S. economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Breaking with historical norms, Trump has been highly critical of Powell as he places blame for any economic weakness on the nation’s central bank for raising interest rates too much over the past two years.<\/p>\n

Peter Navarro, who advises Trump on trade policy, shared that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Reserve chairman should look in the mirror and say, ‘I raised rates too far, too fast, and I cost this economy a full percentage point of growth,\u201d’ Navarro said.<\/p>\n

Navarro also said that U.S. consumers are not affected by the administration’s trade war with China, though tariffs are taxes paid by U.S. importers, not by China, and are often passed along to U.S. businesses and consumers through higher prices.<\/p>\n

Kudlow himself told Fox in May that U.S. consumers and businesses ultimately end up paying the tariffs that the administration imposes on billions of dollars of Chinese goods.<\/p>\n

Trump acknowledged at least a potential impact when he paused a planned 10 per cent tariff hike for many items coming from China, such as cellphones, laptops, video game consoles, some toys, computer monitors, shoes and clothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re doing (it) just for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs could have an impact,\u201d the president told reporters in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Navarro would not go even that far, saying Sunday \u201cthere’s no evidence whatsoever that Americans consumers are bearing any of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kudlow was interviewed on NBC’s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d and \u201cFox News Sunday.\u201d O’Rourke spoke on NBC, and Navarro appeared on CNN’s \u201cState of the Union\u201d and CBS’ \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump’s trade war with China has been a target of criticism by Democrats vying to challenge him in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is clearly no strategy for dealing with the trade war in a way that will actually lead to results for American farmers or American consumers,\u201d said Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, a Democratic presidential candidate. He said on CNN that it was \u201ca fool’s errand\u201d to think tariff increases will compel China to change its economic approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. \u2014 President Donald Trump said Sunday the economy is \u201cdoing very well\u201d and dismissed concerns of recession, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":178806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-kevin-freking","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227369,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227368\/revisions\/227369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}