‘There are always risks,’ Brian Deese tells CNN
President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser said Sunday that the risk of a recession can’t be dismissed, but that the U.S. is still doing well when compared with the rest of the world.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Nation,” Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, said fighting inflation is the administration’s top priority and that the Fed needs “space” to do its job. He also said that despite the potential for a recession, the U.S. is still in a relatively good position.
“There are always risks, but we feel very good about where the United States is, particularly when you look on a global landscape.”
— Brian Deese
Deese told CNN host Dana Bash that the Biden administration has dealt with a number of “unexpected challenges” over the past year, including new variants of COVID-19, supply-chain bottlenecks and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also argued that the country’s economy is moving toward what could be a new cycle of growth.
“Our economy is in a transition from what has been the strongest recovery in modern American history to what can be a period of more stable and resilient growth that works better for families,” Deese said.
“There’s no doubt we face serious global challenges right now, inflation first and foremost among them, and it’s hitting families hard,” Deese continued. “But there’s also no doubt that the United States is in a better position than any other major country around the world to address inflation without giving up all the economic gains that we’ve had and that’s because of the strength of our recovery.”
Last week, Wall Street booked its longest losing streak since 1932, amid investor anxiety that higher inflation is cutting into companies’ bottom lines and that the Fed may have acted too slowly.