Possible 2024 Wisconsin Senate candidate repeatedly predicted recessions that never happened

Sunwest Bank CEO Eric Hovde, a potential challenger to Wisconsin Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, is slated to address the bank’s Annual Economic Forum in Newport Beach, California, on Thursday.

Hovde will deliver the keynote address at the event, an announcement for which says that attendees will “Gain clear insights on the U.S. economy, real estate, global markets, and more.” 

So far, however, Hovde’s predictions about the U.S. economy have been less than accurate.

Hovde ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012. In a radio ad for his unsuccessful campaign, he asserted that a government default on the national debt was imminent and would likely lead to a global depression. 

In a March 2012 interview on the “Vicki McKenna Show” in Madison, he said the U.S. would face a debt crisis similar to one in Greece in the next three to four years. In another appearance on McKenna’s program, he warned the national debt would lead to anarchy in the streets within the next five years. 

Hovde made an even more dire prediction in a July 2012 appearance on a show hosted by right-wing host Charlie Sykes, saying the U.S. would fall into recession within the next 12 months.

None of these predictions came to fruition.

Hovde’s alarmist predictions were not limited to his political campaign. In 2022, he told the Business Observer website in Florida that he believed the U.S. was on the brink of a global recession.

“I think we’re headed into a global recession, where there are really no bright spots,” Hovde said. “I think this recession is going to go longer and be more severe and last a minimum of 18 months, and probably more likely 24 to 36 months.”

In April, Hovde predicted recession again but this time said it would be partially caused by energy policy.

“Until we truly get to the heart of inflation and start changing some of our economic and energy policies, then we may enter a recession this year, and I think we will be stuck in this difficult slowdown for some time to come,” Hovde wrote in a Sunwest Bank newsletter.
Hovde has met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee about a possible 2024 run. He did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this story.