'Worst case scenario': Expert warns economic 'crash' risk grows by the day under Trump

An economic expert Monday warned that a looming stock market crash could be on the horizon as the Trump administration shows its penchant for chaos.

Bloomberg economics columnist Clive Crook responded to questions over why the economy has not crashed and how despite policy disruptions and predictions of "doom" from experts and economists, the stock market appears to be still doing well — yet that could change.

Crook argued that given the Trump administration's sweeping policy changes, including tariffs and a rocky political situation unfolding both in and outside the United States, that Trump's policies have not yet been vindicated.

"The fact that the markets have done incredibly well is not really an endorsement of Trump's policies," Crook said.

"Don't misunderstand me: There are aspects of Trump's policies that the financial markets do — as it were, rationally — welcome rationally regard as pro-growth. In particular, lower corporate taxes and efforts at deregulation, those are pluses in the market's mind. But there are also negatives alongside: trade policy fiscal and monetary policy."

The result has been more complicated than it might appear, he added.

"On balance, it's hard to say how those will work out," Crook said. "And the other big thing that needs to be emphasized is the hope or the prospect that AI innovation will transform growth going forward, will transform productivity. So I'm not saying there are aren't reasons to be optimistic. All I'm saying is in this bundle of conflicting information and conflicting narratives, there are negatives which persist regardless of where the markets go. And as it were the disorder and the disruption that this administration really revels in, as that continues, the risk of a crash creating the worst case scenario, then that risk grows — grows over time."