We Will Soon Have an “Afforability Czar”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will create an “affordability czar.” The “affordability czar” will address high prices in the U.S. — a continuing concern for Americans which Bessent says he is “laser focused on.”

Bessent described the new role at the Treasury Department as “someone who picks the five or eight areas where this administration can make a big difference for working class Americans.” He also previewed the creation of an “affordability council.”

“I think President Trump said that he’ll own the economy in six or 12 months, but I can tell you that we are working to get these prices down every day, but it took four years to get us here, and we’ve had five weeks so interest rates are down,” Bessent said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

“That’s a very good start toward housing affordability, toward auto affordability, and we are tackling this.”

U.S. consumer confidence plummeted in February a business research group said Tuesday, with inflation seemingly stuck and a trade war under President Trump seen by a growing number of Americans as inevitable.

“The Conference Board survey is the 3rd data point in less than a week (after Fri’s flash PMIs and Michigan sentiment report) making it abundantly clear that Trump-linked policy uncertainty is eroding confidence and tipping the economy (at least) into a slowdown (if not something worse),” said Adam Crisafulli, president of investment advisory firm Vital Knowledge, in a note.

It’s been a little over a month and the media, that cared nothing about inflation for most of four years now wants it straightened out immediately.

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