Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen refused to publicly predict just what might happen to the economy under a Donald Trump presidency.
After her speech Monday at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia,
Yellen took questions from the public.
She was asked about the potential for a Trump presidency to cause "an economic crash” all over the world. "Is this a possibility?" the man asked.
"I'm sorry, I've got nothing for you on that," Yellen said with a chuckle amid a mix of applause, laughter and chatter in the room.
"We're very focused on doing our jobs, and we'll just — we'll see what happens," she added.
Trump has repeatedly said he would replace Yellen as the Fed chairman. He also has said the Fed had kept rates low to help President Barack Obama's administration.
"I have nothing against Janet Yellen whatsoever," the presumptive nominee recently told CNBC's
"Squawk Box" program. "I don't know her. She's a very capable person. People I know have a high regard for her. But she's not a Republican."
Yellen, who was named as the Federal Reserve chairwoman in 2014, is appointed through January 2018.
While Yellen refused to comment on the economic aftershocks of a Trump presidency, others have not been so reticent.
Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, predicts electing Trump could also plunge the U.S. and the world into a recession.
"If he were elected, I would expect a protracted recession to begin within 18 months," Summers writes in the
Washington Post. "The damage would in all likelihood be felt far beyond the United States."
Summers lists many reasons he fears that Trump could seriously damage the world economy. Trump is unpredictable and could easily create instability — and markets don't like uncertainty.
"Creating an environment where every tradition of the rule of law, internationalism and consistency in policy is up for grabs would be the best way to damage a still-fragile U.S. economy," writes Summers, professor at and past president of Harvard University.
"In no election in my lifetime has a major-party candidate for president been so dangerous for the economy," Summers, who was treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 and an economic adviser to President Barack Obama from 2009 through 2010.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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