Treasury Department Secretary says he’s ‘not worried about the markets’

Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that he is “not worried about the markets” after a rough week for the stock market.

“I can tell you that corrections are healthy, they’re normal,” Bessent told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.” “What’s not healthy is straight up, that you get these euphoric markets. That’s how you get a financial crisis.”

“It would’ve been much healthier if someone had put the brakes on in ‘06, ‘07, we wouldn’t have had the problems in ‘08,” he added. “So, I’m not worried about the markets.”

Bessent’s comments came after a rough week for the stock market. On Monday, the stock market began the week with intense losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 890 points that day, dipping 2.1 percent. 

Conversations about a possible recession also became prominent this week, with one of Bessent’s predecessors as Treasury Department secretary, Larry Summers, saying on Monday that the odds of a recession were “close to 50/50.”

“I told @kasie @CNN [CNN anchor Kasie Hunt] today, I think there is a real possibility of a recession,” Summers wrote in a thread on the social platform X.

“I would have said a couple of months ago a recession was really unlikely this year. Now, it’s probably not 50/50, but getting close to 50/50. There is one central reason. Economic policies that are completely counterproductive,” he added.

Since the beginning of the month, stocks had dropped steadily due to underwhelming economic data and topsy-turvy Trump administration tariff announcements, but the sell-off escalated Monday.

“Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation and energy security, the markets will do great,” Bessent said Sunday.