US Treasury Secretary sounds the alarm: high interest rates are causing housing to slump, the Federal Reserve must accelerate interest rate cuts.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bezent said that due to high interest rates, the US economy in some sectors - especially housing - may have fallen into recession and once again called on the Federal Reserve to speed up rate cuts. "I think the overall economic fundamentals are good, but certain sectors are indeed in recession," Bezent said. "The Fed's policies have also caused a lot of distribution problems." He pointed out that high mortgage rates are still hindering the real estate market. "Housing is essentially in a recession, with the biggest impact on low-end consumers who are heavily indebted and have few assets." Data from the National Association of Realtors show that pending home sales in September were unchanged from the previous month. Bezent described the overall economic environment as a "transition period" and criticized Fed Chairman Powell's suggestion last week that a rate cut in December may be put on hold. Fed Governor Stephen Milan (currently on vacation and will return as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in January) said in an interview last Friday that if the Fed does not cut rates quickly, it could trigger a recession. Milan voted against the Fed's decision to cut rates by only 25 basis points last time, advocating for a one-time cut of 50 basis points. "Maintaining policy at this tight level in the long term could itself be a cause of recession. If there is little risk of inflation rising, I see no reason to take this risk," Milan said. Bezent agreed with this view. He said that the Trump administration's spending cuts helped reduce the federal deficit as a percentage of GDP from 6.4% to 5.9%, which helps lower inflation. "If we cut spending, inflation should continue to decline; as inflation declines, the Fed should continue to cut rates," he said.