Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pouring cold water on talk of a recession from one prominent albeit unexpected figure: Cardi B.
“Do you know who Cardi B is?” CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Yellen on Thursday at the New York Times’s DealBook D.C. policy forum.
“I mean, I don’t have that much time for her. But I am alive,” Yellen, 75, replied in the affirmative with a laugh.
Sorkin then pointed to a recent tweet from the “Up” rapper, in which she asked her 23 million followers, “When y’all think they going to announce that we going into a recession?”
“Don’t look to me to announce it,” Yellen said in response.
“I’m not going to announce it. I don’t think we’re going to have a recession,” Yellen said.
“Consumer spending is very strong. Investment spending is solid. I expect growth to slow down,” Yellen added.
“We have a very strong economy. I know people are very upset — and rightfully so — about inflation. But there’s nothing to suggest inflation if a recession is in the works,” Yellen told Sorkin.
Yellen’s comments came days after she testified in front of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee over soaring inflation. Data released Friday by the Labor Department showed that May’s annual inflation marked the fastest yearly growth in prices since 1981, when inflation hit 8.9 percent annually.
Cardi B, born Belcalis Almánzar, is known to frequently weigh in on politics and hot-button issues. In February, the 29-year-old entertainer lamented rising inflation, saying in an interview, “Everything is high.”
The Grammy Award winner, a frequent critic of former President Trump, was a vocal supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the 2020 White House race.