© Bloomberg. Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., speaks during a discussion at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018. Goldman’s 10,000 Small Businesses is an investment that brings economic opportunity and assists entrepreneurs to create jobs by providing better access to education, capital and business support services.
(Bloomberg) — The latest batch of economic data has opened the door to the US economy possibly avoiding a recession, according to Lloyd Blankfein, the former chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) Inc.
“After recent Goldilocks economic reports, maybe we don’t get either a hard landing or soft landing. Maybe we get NO landing,” Blankfein said on Twitter.
Blankfein also took issue with arguments that the US was heading for a hard landing on Wednesday, saying that the growth of the US economy combined with rising payrolls disputes high recessionary odds displayed by the bond market and other economists.
“Conditions are worrisome BUT: aren’t they consistent with what you’d expect heading for a soft landing?” Blankfein said in the Wednesday tweet.
Friday’s latest data showed US consumer spending has essentially stalled since a surge in January, which may help ease price pressures but could also set up the economy for a sharp slowdown. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s favored inflation gauge also hit a 10-month low on Friday, a day after he suggested that two more rate hikes are likely necessary this year to bring down inflation.
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