NBC host Chuck Todd reminded White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow of his ill-fated prediction in 2007 that there was “no recession coming,” as Kudlow praised current economic forecasts.
“This is what you wrote,” Todd said on Meet the Press. “‘There’s no recession coming.’ This is in December of [2007]. ‘The pessimistas were wrong. It’s not going to happen. The Bush boom is alive and well. It’s finishing up its sixth consecutive year with more to come.’ The more to come was a massive downturn. I admire your optimism, but the data is pointing in another direction.”
Kudlow quickly admitted fault for his prediction, which preceded the second-worst economic downturn in U.S. history.
“I plead guilty to that late 2007 forecast,” Kudlow said, while noting there were other economists who were blindsided by the recession.
“You weren’t alone,” Todd acknowledged.
Earlier in the interview, Kudlow told Todd that he does not see the economy slowing down any time soon.
“We had some blockbuster retail sales, consumer numbers toward the back end of last week,” Kudlow said. “Despite a lot of worries with the volatile stock market, most economists on Wall Street toward the end of the week had been marking up their forecasting for the third and fourth quarter.”
Kudlow also predicted that “the second half of the economy is going to be very good in 2019.”
“Let’s not be afraid of optimism,” Kudlow said.
