Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that he is not worried about U.S. markets in the long term, even though stocks fell last week amid President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, telling Americans there will be a “transition,” not a “crisis.”
Bessent made the remarks during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” saying that “one week does not the market make,” when asked about whether Americans whose retirements are invested in the markets should be concerned.
“We’ve got these large government deficits, 6.7% of GDP,” Bessent said. “We’ve never seen this when we’re not in wartime, not in recession. We are bringing those down in a responsible way. We are going to have a transition. And we are not going to have a crisis.”
Bessent said stock market corrections are “healthy” and “normal.”
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“What’s not healthy is straight up, that is, euphoric markets,” he said. “That’s how you get a financial crisis.”
Bessent noted that if “someone had put the brakes on in ’06-’07,” it could have prevented the problems leading to the 2008 crash.
“So I’m not worried about the markets,” he said. “Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation and energy security, the markets will do great.”
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After seeing major swings early in the week over rising trade tensions, all three of the major U.S. benchmarks clocked solid gains Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.6%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose over 2%.
Still, for the week, the Dow lost 3%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell over 2%.
Last weekend, Trump was asked about the potential of a recession.
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“This is a period of transition, because what we are doing is very big. We are bringing wealth back to America,” Trump told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
FOX Business Digital’s Suzanne O’Halloran contributed to this report.
