Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk says the U.S. economy is probably in a recession, and it could be “tough” for 12-18 months. He added: “The honest reason for inflation is that the government printed a million more money than it had.”
Elon Musk on the recession and inflation in the U.S.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Spacex, talked about the U.S. economy in an All-In podcast published Monday.
Commenting on the question of whether the U.S. economy is in a recession, Musk said:
We’re probably in a recession, and that recession is going to get worse, but these things pass, and then boom times will come again… It’s probably going to be a tough period for, I don’t know, a year, maybe 12-18 months.”
He added that 12-18 months is about as long as it takes to correct. Concerns about a recession have increased recently as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy to help lower inflation.
Musk explained that he doesn’t think recessions are necessarily a bad thing, stressing that he has experienced several of them during his time at public companies. “What usually happens is that if a boom goes on too long, there’s a misallocation of capital — it starts raining money on fools,” he described.
Noting that rising prices were a result of money printing, the Tesla boss said:
The honest reason for inflation is that the government printed a million more money than it had… It’s not that, you know, super complicated.”
Musk added that countries like Venezuela have already gone the same way.
The Tesla executive is currently in the middle of an offer to buy Twitter Inc. He offered the social media giant about $44 billion, and Twitter agreed. However, the deal is now on hold.
Musk also said he may be looking for a lower price for Twitter, saying there could be at least four times as many fake accounts as the company said. He said: “You can’t pay the same price for something that’s much worse than they claimed.”
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