Elon Musk: 'a recession is inevitable' in near future
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and the world’s richest man, is in total opposition to the Biden administration’s assessment of the economy. On Tuesday, Musk bluntly asserted his position that “a recession is inevitable at some point.”
Splitting from Joe Biden’s assessment that a recession was “not inevitable,” Musk told his audience at the Qatar Economic Forum that a recession in the near-term is “more likely than not.”
“A recession is inevitable at some point. As to whether there is a recession in the near term, that is more likely than not. It is not a certainty, but it appears more likely than not,” said Musk, the Daily Wire reported.
As recently as Monday, Biden claimed that he did not believe the United States would face a recession at any point in time in the near future. When given a dire assessment of the economy by a journalist, Biden responded by accusing the journalist of sounding “like a Republican politician.”
“Now you sound like a Republican politician, I’m joking, that was a joke, that was a joke. But all kidding aside, no I don’t think it is. I was talking to Larry Summers this morning, there’s nothing inevitable about a recession,” Biden stated at a press gathering in Rehoboth, Delaware. Despite his remarks, Summers, too, has assessed that a recession is on the horizon.
Speaking in an interview with NBC on “Meet the Press” last Sunday, Summers stated, “Look, nothing is certain, and all economic forecasts have uncertainty. My best guess is that a recession is ahead. I base that on the fact that we haven’t had a situation like the present with inflation above 4 percent and unemployment beyond 4 percent without a recession following within a year or two.”
Biden’s remarks echo that of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said on Sunday that she expected the economy to slow but did not expect a recession.
“I expect the economy to slow. It’s been growing at a very rapid rate as the economy, as the labor market is recovered and we reached full employment,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“It’s natural now that we expect to transition to steady and stable growth. I don’t think recession is at all inevitable,” said Yellen.
Musk’s predictions of a recession prompted the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to slash the workforce of his automobile company by 10%, which included terminating a number of the company’s “diversity” program leaders and members.
Despite his outlook, Musk said in May that he sees the disruption as a much-needed correction, which would force companies to refocus their priorities.
“[This] is actually a good thing. It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen,” he wrote on Twitter. “Also, all the COVID stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don’t actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound!”
Ian Miles Cheong
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Ian Miles Cheong is a freelance writer, graphic designer, journalist and videographer. He’s kind of a big deal on Twitter.
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