EJ Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, issued his assessment on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest rates. Financial Times.
“I think this economy just can’t handle $100 a barrel oil,” Antoni said. “The economy is weaker and inflation is worse than we thought,” he added in a telephone conversation.
“The lower energy prices we had in 2025 helped reduce price pressures across the economy. Now we’ll see higher energy prices backfire and boost their growth.”
Antoni became known to the public in August 2025, when Trump nominated him to lead the US statistical office. That nomination came shortly after the president fired the former commissioner over what he claimed was a “rigged” report on poor employment.
However, just a month later, Trump abruptly withdrew Antonio’s nomination and ultimately settled on government economist Brett Matsumoto, whose nomination still awaits Senate confirmation.
Antonio’s warnings about the state of the world’s largest economy come just a day after the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center resigned in protest against the war in Iran. It marks the first major departure from the Trump administration since the conflict began.
Meanwhile, Republicans are increasingly worried that high oil prices will hurt their prospects in the upcoming midterm elections. The price of Brent crude oil on Wednesday jumped by 5 percent, to almost 110 dollars per barrel, reports Index.hr.
Gasoline prices at the pumps rose from $2.92 a month ago to $3.84 per gallon, while diesel prices exceeded $5, which is hitting both American consumers and companies hard. Economic data collected before the start of the American and Israeli attack on Iran further fuels the concern.
The US GDP growth estimate for the last quarter of 2025 was cut last week from 1.4 to 0.7 percent. Data released this Wednesday showed that wholesale prices rose faster than expected in February, even before the outbreak of war. Additionally, the US economy lost 92,000 jobs last month, reversing much of January’s growth.
Antoni singled out the “lack of employment growth,” attributing some of that to last year’s cuts in the federal administration. He also repeated his criticism of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which he likened to a “random number generator” in a post on the X social network last May.
“There is a need for a full and comprehensive review of everything from the collection and processing to the release of the data, as there have been several issues with information leakage,” he said.
Recall that in January of this year, Trump published some employment data for December a few hours before their official publication.
Antoni did not want to reveal how Trump informed him that he was no longer a candidate for BLS leader. “I would rather keep those conversations private,” he said shortly.
(Vijesti.ba)
