(The Hill) – BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in a recent interview that the US may be in a recession or very close as a result of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
“We’re not now, but we’re very close,” Fink appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Friday.
“You just slow down all the way down until there is more certainty. And we now have a 90-day suspension on mutual tariffs. That means longer and higher uncertainty,” the chairman of the asset management company added.
After Trump has implemented widespread tariffs, uncertainty around the US has accelerated, setting a 10% import tax on all goods in the US and setting a higher class of mutual tariffs on dozens of countries.
On Wednesday, Trump said he would suspend most of the tariffs, but he said he would increase the number of people targeting Chinese products to 125%, in addition to the 20% already collected earlier this year. Beijing said it would fight back on Friday morning with its own 125% tariff.
“Even if the US continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer be economically meaningful and become a joke in the history of the world economy,” Chinese officials said.
Fink said Friday that BlackRock is “expending more time in more conversations with more clients than at any point in time because their clients are “with uncertainty.”
“This is not a pandemic. It’s not a financial crisis. It’s something we created. Like I said, in the US, we were still global stabilizers after World War II. We are global instability.”
“That’s very difficult to say because I take pride in bringing leadership and bringing conversation,” he added. “But I think the power of capitalism in America is still alive.”
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