Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that while a recession is “possible but not inevitable,” the Biden administration has been focused on working to “strengthen the foundations of the American economy.”
Buttigieg was asked in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” if the threat of recession worried him.
“Look, it’s possible but not inevitable. … A part of why we do see a lot of pressure on prices is that while the demand has come back, Americans have more income because Americans have jobs in this almost historically low level of unemployment,” Buttigieg told anchor George Stephanopoulos, adding that it’s “been hard for the supply side to keep up.”
“That’s a big part of what we’re working on on the infrastructure side, dealing with some of the bottlenecks we have, dealing with some of the constraints that we have in transportation infrastructure that’s needed to be upgraded for decades,” Buttigieg said.
President Joe Biden said last week that he believed an economic downturn was unlikely but could be “slight,” while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has warned a recession is likely on its way within six to nine months because of both Russia’s war in Ukraine and historically high inflation and the rising interest rates to combat those prices.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
