Full Video Transcript Below:
CAROLINE WOODS: As an economist, what keeps you up at night about the US economy over, say, the next six months?
MARK ZANDI: Well, it’s the tariffs in the immigration policy. I mean, I think at the root of the economy’s troubles are the tariffs in the translation into prices. Higher prices for consumers and higher input costs for businesses, and lower profit margins. And the immigration policy. A highly restrictive immigration policy, which is really weighing on various industries that depend on those workers construction, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, retailing, leisure, hospitality, all of those. And I think the one thing that I just put on the radar screen that I know probably already there, but just to reinforce it, is the concern about Federal Reserve independence. The independence of the Fed is key to a well-functioning economy and financial system. If that’s gone, if we lose that, we’ve got a problem down the road. Not not here and now, but down the road with higher inflation, higher interest rates. So that’s also something I worry about in the context of current policy.
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