The G20 summit has kicked off, and the two men with the most power over America’s economy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, are there. Their keyword for the summit appears to be “growth.” CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Jeff Cox report:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh christened Monday’s gathering of the Group of 20 finance ministers in Asheville, North Carolina, by singing the gospel of growth.
“The world is awash in debt,” Bessent told reporters before kicking off the two-day meeting, “and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this.”
In a CNBC interview later Monday morning, Bessent signaled that U.S. growth goals include putting the Iran war in the rearview mirror. He insisted that the administration’s new effort to crush Iran’s economy doesn’t require China’s compliance.
Warsh, in introductory remarks to the gathering of international finance leaders, central bank governors and other top officials, bid good riddance to the idea of “secular stagnation” — what he described as the once-prevailing academic consensus that “all the good stuff had already been invented.”
“The new period is one of secular growth,” Warsh said. “If I were to try to characterize this moment, it would be one of a global investment surge.”
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