Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted oil prices could fall to between $40 and $50 per barrel once the Iran conflict ends, arguing that abundant supply is poised to hit the market after constraints ease.
Bessent asserted that the American economy is “very strong” and even accelerating, saying that the country is experiencing a “productivity burst” during an interview on “My View with Lara Trump.”
“On the other side of this, we actually could see oil prices $40 or $50 because there’s so much supply coming on. It’s just constricted right now,” he told Fox News host Lara Trump.
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“So my message is: Underlying economy is very strong. Job growth is strong. Wage growth is strong.”
The “energy supply shock” is only temporary, Bessent said, calling the United States an “energy superpower” and a leader in artificial intelligence and global computing power.
“Americans, on average, are breaking even. Working-class Americans at the bottom of the wage spectrum are doing a little better than inflation, but we don’t believe that that is acceptable,” the Treasury chief said.
“But what is the good news is that these wage increases are going to keep going. We’ve got a manufacturing renaissance, a construction renaissance. So the wages will keep going, this war will end, and those will turn into real wage gains.”
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Bessent’s comments come as tension between Washington, D.C., and Tehran show no sign of cooling following Saturday’s U.S. strikes on Iranian tankers.
He predicted that the Strait of Hormuz would soon become less crucial to global oil trade as Gulf nations work to construct alternative pipeline routes that will allow them to circumnavigate the tumultuous waters, diminishing Iran’s ability to threaten oil flows.
“This is the greatest economic isolation operation in the history of the world. We are going to asphyxiate this regime,” Bessent said, adding that the combination of the blockade and sanctions is “one of the most powerful one-two punches in the history of economic isolation.”
“I think we are going to get to the other side of this Iran conflict with a safer world, with an Iran that cannot have a nuclear weapon, and that we are in the lift-off phase.”
