Topline
Several economists warn the Trump administration may tip the U.S. into an unnecessary recession, as President Donald Trump and his top economic official’s refuse to rule out a recession, rattling Wall Street and consumers — and the data below will help gauge exactly how close the economy may be coming to a tipping point.
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters Sunday.
Key Facts
Goldman Sachs economists hiked their odds of a recession over the next year from 20% to 35% in a downbeat note to clients Sunday, raising their forecasts for inflation and unemployment and cutting their economic growth prediction; JPMorgan economists have an even more pessimistic 40% recession probability.
The UCLA Anderson School of Management published earlier this month an official “Recession Watch” for the first time in its 73 years of economic forecasts, as economist Clement Bohr issued a scathing assessment of Trump’s economic policies, writing the Recession Watch “serves as a warning to the current administration: be careful what you wish for because, if all your wishes come true, you could very well be the author of a deep recession.”
A recession is “entirely avoidable” if Trump’s signature economic policies, including the most severe tariffs in nearly a century and the public sector’s dismantling at the hands of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are “pared back or phased in more gradually,” according to Bohr.
Moody’s Analytics’ chief economist Mark Zandi struck a similar chord in a March 19 interview on CNN’s “Early Start with Rahel Solomon,” saying it “feels like we're being pushed into recession” by Trump.
“The recession risks are uncomfortably high and they're rising,” declared Zandi, adding he believes the odds of a recession are “less than 50-50, but it really does depend on the president and what he does here.”
Trump Administration Prepares Americans For The Possibility Of A Recession
Trump braced Americans for a possible recession in a Fox News interview aired March 9, when he would not rule out the possibility of a recession, cautioning Americans for a period of economic “transition” as his policies take hold and noting he’s paying little attention to stock market losses. In subsequent media appearances, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent similarly declined to dismiss a potential recession and said the U.S. will go through a “detox period.” Bessent told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview out Sunday he believes it “would have been much healthier if someone had put the brakes” on ahead of the Great Recession.
Contra
The likelihood of a recession “has moved up but it’s not high,” Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve and the highest-ranking monetary policy official, told reporters Wednesday, quelling fears in a downtrodden economic news cycle.
What Actually Triggers A Recession? (it Hasn’t Happened—yet)
The technical definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in gross domestic product, a comprehensive measure of all goods and services produced in a country. The official quarterly GDP stats haven't turned negative yet, but the Atlanta Federal Reserve's real-time model ignited concerns beginning Feb. 28 by calling for negative annual GDP growth in 2025's first quarter. The Atlanta Fed calls for -1.4% annual GGP growth during Q1, which would be the worst reading since 2020, even when accounting for a surge in gold imports. A CNBC survey of economists call for slightly positive GDP expansion at 0.3%.
Stock Market Signals Slowdown Fears
Stock prices don’t completely correlate with economic growth, but equity investors are clearly pricing in increased odds of a down stretch for the U.S. economy. The S&P 500 dove into a 10% correction earlier this month, wiping out some $5 trillion in market value in less than a month’s time, led by stocks considered the most vulnerable to a slowdown, including artificial intelligence darling Nvidia and Elon Musk’s Tesla.
Big-Time Money Managers Express Significant Growth Concerns
Bank of America’s monthly survey of global fund managers released this month revealed some 63% of these influential investors expect the global economy to weaken over the next year, making March the second biggest jump in macroeconomic pessimism since the poll’s 1994 inception. The survey also revealed fund managers fled to cash this month at the highest rate since March 2020 and moved away from U.S. stocks at their fastest pace on record, signaling an unraveling of faith in stateside equities. The fund managers heavily agree White House policy is the single biggest risk, with 55% of respondents citing a tariff-driven trade war sending the global economy into a recession as the top threat and 13% naming actions from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency sending the U.S. into a recession as the biggest risk. The Bank of America survey was conducted March 7-13 among 205 global fund managers who collectively manage $477 billion in assets.
Bond Market Is Shaky—but Yield Curve’s Still Intact
Elsewhere in financial markets, a flight to government-issued debt is evidence of a thirst for safer returns in the face of a potential recession, as yields for benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds have dropped by more than 25 basis points over the past two months (lower yields mean bonds got more valuable). But the most common bond market signal of a recession, the inversion of the yield curve, in which longer-term bonds have lower yields than shorter-dated ones, has actually normalized in recent months. The New York Fed’s bond-linked recession model calls for just 27% recession odds over the next year, down from the more than 70% odds in late 2023, a period which failed to materialize into a full-blown recession.
Consumer Confidence Signals Americans Bracing For Tough Times
Perhaps the most concerning signal over the last is a breakdown in everyday Americans’ conviction in the economy, as the Conference Baord’s closely watched consumer confidence survey tumbled this month to its lowest level since 2021. That tracks with weaker spending, as February retail sales grew by just 0.2% from January to February, according to a report released March 17 by the Census Bureau, far worse than the 0.6% month-over-month increase projected by economists.
Unemployment Rate Is Still Fine
One of the most important hallmarks of the American economy, the labor market has shown some cracks in early 2025 as job creation slowed and layoffs spiked, but remains overwhelmingly strong, as February’s 4.1% unemployment rate sits well within the healthy historic norm. A key labor market recession indicator, the Sahm rule, flashes a far lower likelihood of a recession than it did when it peaked last summer, inspiring a short-lived market selloff in August.
Gold And Oil Prices Hint At Potential Global Slowdown
Trading in two of the world’s most precious commodities certainly point to the prospect of a global recession. Gold prices are up more than 10% this year to a record $3,100 per troy ounce as investors flood into the historic safe haven asset, while prices for international benchmark Brent Crude sank this month to their lowest point since 2021 as traders braced for a potential global weakening in oil demand as economic activity slows.
What To Watch For
Bessent and Trump have made clear they are lasered in on lowering interest rates, which are determined by the politically independent Fed. Typically, rates are only drastically cut during periods of economic distress, as lower rates typically stimulate economic growth as households and businesses are more likely to borrow with lower interest costs, though that uptick in loan activity can simultaneously lead to higher inflation as demand rises. The Fed is likely to hold off on further rate cuts “until tariff policy becomes clearer,” according to David Mericle, Goldman’s chief U.S. economist.
Crucial Quote
“Cracks are forming in the economy's foundation,” Lydia Boussour, senior economist at EY-Parthenon, wrote in emailed comments Monday. “While we don’t anticipate an outright pullback in consumer spending, recession risks are rising,” Boussour continued.
