Is the Economy Out of the Woods Yet? I Don’t Think So: Jonathan Williams on NTD News
There's just too much uncertainty and too much risk to declare we're in for a soft landing.
ALEC Chief Economist and Executive Vice President of Policy Jonathan Williams spoke with NTD News about Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comments on the economy in assuring Americans that a recession is not coming.
We’ve been through some painful quarters with record-high inflation. Is the economy out of the woods yet? I don’t think so, and there are a few major problems on the horizon. One is the massive tax increase about to hit our economy. We’ll see if anything gets done in Washington because the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by President Donald Trump are already beginning to phase out some of its business provisions.
All of the individual side protections from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act go away or are repealed if nothing is done by December 2025. That means we’re facing one of the largest tax increases in American history. If nothing is done in Washington, that is a major threat.
The other one is our $32 trillion-plus national debt and what that means for future tax increases and borrowing costs. In addition, with commercial real estate, we’ve seen many potential contracts coming up in the next number of months. Over the course of the next couple of years, and while I certainly hope and I think all of us can agree that we hope that Janet Yellen is correct in this regard, I think there’s just too much uncertainty and too much risk when it comes to the policy environment to declare that we’re going to be in for a soft landing or avoid a recession.