Job openings have been plummeting, and layoffs have been spiking. Manufacturing activity is way down, and delinquency rates are way up. In fact, the credit card delinquency rate just hit the highest level that we have seen since 2011. Just about everything has gotten significantly more expensive, and America's food banks are being overwhelmed by vast numbers of hungry people. Nobody can deny any of these things, and now U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is publicly admitting that "there are sectors of the economy that are in recession"…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Stephen Miran, President Trump's appointee to the Fed's Board of Governors who is on a temporary leave from his job leading the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, this week struck a downbeat tone about the health of the world's largest economy. Mr. Bessent went so far as to say some sectors were already contracting. He did not specify which sectors, but high mortgage rates have put housing and adjacent industries such as construction under pressure.

"I think that there are sectors of the economy that are in recession," Mr. Bessent said on CNN on Sunday. He described the economy as being in a "period of transition" because of a pullback in government spending to reduce the deficit. He called on the Fed to support the economy by cutting interest rates.