Welcome back to The Red Letter.
The U.S. economy just took a jolt.
The latest jobs report showed the economy lost 92,000 jobs in February, far worse than economists expected, while unemployment slightly ticked up to 4.4 percent from 4.3 percent and labor participation fell to 62 percent —a sign that some Americans may be giving up on finding work.
At the same time, a war involving Iran is threatening one of the most critical chokepoints in global energy: the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through each day. Disruptions there are already pushing oil prices higher and raising fears of an inflation shock.
So how fragile is the U.S. economy right now?
In this episode of The Tara Palmeri Show, I sat down with Wall Street tycoon and former Obama economic advisor Robert Wolf to break down what’s really happening behind the headlines: whether the weak jobs numbers signal something deeper, why companies may be freezing hiring, and how a prolonged oil spike could ripple through everything from gas prices to interest rates.
If energy prices surge while the labor market softens, Wolf warns we could face a scenario economists dread: stagflation — slow growth combined with rising prices.
Watch our full conversation above.
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