Vice Chairman of IBM on inflation and 2024 election
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - IBM Vice Chairman Gary Cohn, who served as an economic adviser in the Trump administration, appeared on Face the Nation Sunday, speaking to moderator Margaret Brennan about inflation.
"I think it's a really important concept for everyone to understand. Inflation has a compounding effect, meaning as you look at inflation, year over year, you're adding up those numbers. You're not starting at zero every year. So if we had 6% inflation last year, 7% inflation, and now we have 4% inflation, that's 10% inflation. So if you take a basket of groceries at the beginning of 2020, just a simple basic basket that cost $100, it costs well over $125 today, because those 4% one year and 7% one year and 7% the next year, they add up, they're cumulative. So there's a huge cumulative effect, inflation."
Gary Cohn, Vice Chairman of IBM, and NEC director in the Trump administration
During the interview with Brennan, Cohn said that right now, "the business community, at this point, is still open minded" about whether to support President Biden or former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
"I think the business community really wants to hear the policies. You know, there's a lot of big policies out here...we touched on taxes. You know, what's going to happen in taxes by the end of end of '25, where are we going to be...that's very important. Energy policy, very important to business. Business consumes a lot of energy. We haven't even talked on AI. AI is a huge consumer of electricity, it's going to change our demand profile dramatically in this country. The southern border, what's gonna go on at the southern border. Legal immigration, we need skilled laborers in this country, we need to bring in two million skilled laborers in this country. The business community is going to look at those topics and they're going to look at the platforms of the candidates. And I think that's going to have a huge impact on how they vote."
Gary Cohn, Vice Chairman of IBM, and NEC director in the Trump administration
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Cohn, click here.
