Trump advisers say no recession on the horizon

Bloomberg

Larry Kudlow pushed back on Sunday on the notion that the US economy is headed towards a recession, and said recent phone calls between US and Chinese trade negotiators had produced more “positive news.”
Kudlow, the White House National Economic Council director, and Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, made multiple appearances on Sunday talk shows to discuss the economy and China trade prospects after a tumultuous week in financial markets.
“I don’t see a recession at all,” Kudlow said on Fox News Sunday. He added that there were no plans for additional fresh measures to boost the economy, and that the Trump administration would stay the course on its current agenda.
“Consumers are working. At higher wages. They are spending at a rapid pace. They’re actually saving also while they’re spending — that’s an ideal situation,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Navarro, on ABC’s “This Week,” predicted “a strong economy through 2020 and beyond.”
On CNN, Navarro disputed that US had seen an inverted yield curve, often a forerunner of recession because it signals market expectations for weaker growth ahead. “Technically we didn’t have a yield curve inversion,” he said on “State of the Union.” “All we’ve had is a flat yield curve.”
Trump lashed out at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Twitter, specifically mentioning the “CRAZY INVERTED YIELD CURVE.”
Navarro once again criticised Powell and the Fed on Sunday. “The Federal Reserve chairman should look in the mirror and say ‘I raised rates too fast,’” Navarro said on CNN.
US-China trade tension boiled over this month after a brief detente. The US officially declared China a currency manipulator, and the country responded with a boycott of American farm products and signaling that its currency can help cushion the tariff blow.
At a time Trump is pursuing trade disputes with China, Europe and others, an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday showed support for free trade among Americans is on the rise.
Almost two-thirds — 64 percent — see free trade as good for US, an all-time high for the survey series and up 7 percentage points from the last time it was asked, in 2017. Only 27% believe it’s bad because it hurts key industries.