(The Hill) – BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said during a recent interview that the United States may already be in a recession or getting very close to one as a result of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
“I think we’re very close, if not in, a recession now,” Fink said during his Friday appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
“I think you’re going to see, across the board, just a slowdown until there’s more certainty. And we now have a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs — that means longer, more elevated uncertainty,” the asset management company’s chair added.
The uncertainty around the U.S. plunging into a recession has accelerated after Trump implemented his far-reaching tariffs, instituting a flat 10 percent import tax on all goods coming into the U.S. and higher-tier reciprocal tariffs against dozens of countries.
On Wednesday, Trump said he would halt most of the tariffs, but would increase those targeting Chinese goods to 125 percent, on top of the 20 percent one already levied earlier this year. Beijing said Friday morning that it would fire back with its own 125 percent tariff.
“Even if the U.S. continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense, and it will become a joke in the history of the world economy,” Chinese officials said.
Fink said Friday that due to clients “having uncertainty,” BlackRock is “spending more time with more conversation with more clients globally than any time. Our job now is to be, you know, helping, calming, giving them, giving them ideas.”
“This is not a pandemic. This is not a financial crisis. This is something that we’ve created. As I said, also on Monday, United States, post World War II was a global stabilizer. We are the global destabilizer,” BlackRock’s CEO said Friday.
“That’s a very hard thing to say, because I pride ourselves of being, you know, bringing the leadership, bringing the conversations,” he added. “But I will say the power of U.S. capitalism is still alive.”
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