A recession looms as the holiday season approaches in the Western world. This is the season when Americans and Europeans spend their annual bonuses on big-ticket items like travel and consumer goods. However, now is not the time, according to Jeff Bezos, owner of the world’s largest e-commerce platform Amazon, and his fellow Americans. He warned that a recession is on the way, and that people should save some money.
The world’s richest man advised consumers to avoid unnecessary spending in the coming months in an interview with CNN. He advised American families to avoid large-ticket purchases such as cars and televisions because the economy is in a slump.
“If you are an individual thinking about purchasing a large-screen television, perhaps you should take your time, save your money, and see what happens.” The same goes for a new refrigerator or a new car. Simply take some risk off the table,” Bezos explained.
He advised small business owners to postpone planned investments in new equipment and build cash reserves to weather the recession. “Take as much risk off the table as you possibly can,” he advised. “Hope for the best, but brace yourself for the worst,” Bezos said in a CNN interview that aired this week. In the same interview, Bezos committed to donating the majority of his $124 billion fortune to fight climate change and support people working to unite humanity at a time when society is divided by deep social and political divisions.
Previously, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, predicted a recession and a decline in the economy. “There will probably be a year or two of serious recession,” he predicted. “To be honest, the economic picture ahead is bleak, particularly for a company like ours that is so reliant on advertising in a difficult economic climate,” Musk added.
Looking at the current economic situation, the onset of a recession appears to be not far off. Amazon, Twitter, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple have all laid off large numbers of employees in recent weeks. While Twitter laid off nearly half of its global workforce, Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to lay off approximately 13,000 people from Meta platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also confirmed mass layoffs at Amazon in a public post and stated that the tech behemoth will lay off more employees in the coming months.
