Cardi B has no problem making herself a pundit on the American economy. However, her most recent statement has landed her in hot water with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. In February, she lamented to Extra about the ongoing problem of inflation.
“I was looking last year or two years ago and the market is just extremely high, and that’s just, let’s say, when it comes to homes, everything is high,” she said in the interview. “The food is high, the products are high. We can’t even get products from, you know, certain countries.”
However, the 29-year-old entertainer—born Belcalis Almánzar—took it a step further on Twitter with the June 5 question posed to her 23 million followers: “When y’all think they going to announce that we going into a recession?”
On Thursday at the New York Times’s DealBook D.C. policy forum, a CNBC reporter asked the Treasury Secretary if she knows who Cardi B is. “I mean, I don’t have that much time for her. But I am alive,” Yellen, 75, retorted. The reporter then shared the rapper’s tweet about the impending announcement of a recession.
“Don’t look to me to announce it,” Yellen replied. “I’m not going to announce it. I don’t think we’re going to have a recession. Consumer spending is very strong. Investment spending is solid. I expect growth to slow down. We have a very strong economy. I know people are very upset — and rightfully so — about inflation. But there’s nothing to suggest inflation if a recession is in the works.”
Yellen recently testified in front of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee over soaring inflation. On Friday, the Labor Department released data that revealed May’s annual inflation was the fastest growth in prices since 1981.
Cardi has used her large social media platform to critique Donald Trump and support Bernie Sanders. However, it’s best if she leaves the analysis of the American economy to actual economists.