A full recession in the US is not “at all inevitable” despite an economy that is slowing down, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed on ABC’s This Week program on Sunday.
“As the labor market has recovered and we have reached full employment, it’s natural now that we expect to transition to steady and stable growth,” she said, arguing that while maintaining a strong labor market “is going to take skill and luck,” it’s not impossible.
The Treasury secretary insisted “consumer spending remains very strong” despite record lows in consumer confidence. According to a recent report from the University of Michigan, consumer confidence has reached a rock-bottom outlook of 50.2 points, a statistic not seen since the stagflation era of the early 1980s.