JP Morgan strategist: Biden's priority is covid 1:28
(CNN Business) -
The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden has a lot of work ahead of it, and getting the virus under control should be the number one priority, according to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a move that will help save the economy. .
"I have never seen a particular situation like this in my professional experience," Greenspan said.
The 94-year-old former central bank chief spoke with CNN's Julia Chatterley on her First Move show on Thursday.
Although he was not yet in finance, he experienced the Great Depression as a child.
Greenspan led the Fed from 1987 to 2006, the second longest term a president served in that role.
(He was not the first for four months).
Although several drug manufacturers have announced encouraging results from their coronavirus vaccine trials, infection rates continue to rise in countries around the world, as well as the United States.
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Trying to predict where the virus is heading at this stage is little more than a guesswork, Alan Greenspan said.
It might be possible to return to normal by next spring, he added, but only if the spread of the virus is controlled and remains so.
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Current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has repeatedly said that the economy will fully recover only when the covid-19 pandemic is under control.
Even then, we probably won't go back to the economy we knew before the pandemic.
Alan Greenspan talks about the Pelosi project
Millions of Americans still need subsidies to make ends meet because they have lost their jobs due to the crisis and cannot find new ones.
The government spent billions through the CARES Act in the spring, but Washington has been unable to agree to any additional stimulus since then.
This must change, Greenspan and many economists agree.
"I think Pelosi has a specific set of ideas to deal with the problems that are at the forefront now (which) seem quite credible to me," said the former central banker.
"What they have to do is implement them," he added.
As long as there is general agreement that something needs to be done, passing a new stimulus package should be easy, Alan Greenspan said.
But in a situation as precarious as this, one must always wonder what could go wrong.
"I'm not at all convinced that we have enough information to know how to deal with this kind of problem," Greenspan said, adding that there could be unintended consequences for society.
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