2:38 p.m. ET, February 10, 2021
Don't worry about the deficit now, Powell says
From CNN Business' Anneken Tappe
Washington is spending trillions to get the nation through the pandemic -- and get the economy back on track. Deficit hawks are really worried about what this could mean for America's debt pile.
They're right to worry, but this just isn't the time for those concerns, said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during a virtual event with the Economic Club of New York.
"The US deficit is not on a sustainable path," Powell said, but that's not new and has been the case for a while now.
Still, this is not a time to be stingy with government spending, the central banker said:
That time is when the economy is strong, unemployment is low, taxes are rolling in. That time will come."
Interest rates are at ultra-low levels, which makes incurring new debt very cheap for the United States. Some worry that this will change when interest rates go up. But again, Powell tried to soothe these worries.
"We're a long way from a situation where we would have to take into account how the federal government should finance itself," he said.