“I’ve asked this question of you for weeks now because I keep getting texts about it,” said WWL’s Newell Normand recently when he spoke with Guy Williams, the President of Gulf Coast Bank & Trust. “Are we in a recession?”
Williams answer? No.
Despite consumer concerns tied to rising inflation and interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve Bank, Williams explained that recessions are defined as two quarters of declining gross domestic product (GDP) and economic activity.
In the U.S., “we’re gonna have a very positive GDP number for the fourth quarter,” Williams said. “So, we can’t be in a recession.”
Additionally, he said that the nation isn’t in a sustained period of a decline in economic activity. In fact, that activity is going up.
“I mean my goodness, the Taylor Swift debacle shows you how much people want to go see live events,” he said. “People are looking for activities.”
Williams and Normand also discussed the labor market, stagflation, and the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill and concerns about government spending.
“The reality is, a lot of people wanted to do it this way so they could stick in things that they couldn’t get otherwise,” he said of the legislation.
Looking forward, they also discussed the new COVID-19 surge in China, a potential TikTok ban, interest rates in Japan and more.
“In 45 days, you’ll have China coming back and pushing commodity prices for the rest of the world,” Williams said of the outbreak in China.
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