Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she thinks there is a tremendous necessity to pass a large stimulus package to get the economy back on track, according to an interview published by CNBC.
“We think it’s very important to have a big package [that] addresses the pain this has caused — 15 million Americans behind on their rent, 24 million adults and 12 million children who don’t have enough to eat, small businesses failing,” she said, per CNBC.
Her comments came in spite of news about the growth of the economy being off to a faster start in 2021 than expected, CNBC reported.
“I think the price of doing too little is much higher than the price of doing something big,” she added, according to CNBC. “We think that the benefits will far outweigh the costs in the longer run.”
In terms of inflation, Yellen told CNBC she isn’t worried.
She said inflation has been low for the past decade and while it is still a risk, the Federal Reserve is in a place to cushion the blow. She said the greater risk is “of scarring the people, having this pandemic take a permanent, lifelong toll on their lives and livelihoods,” according to CNBC.
Despite the recent data showing better retail sales that came with recent stimulus checks, CNBC reported that the U.S. economy is still mired in uncertainty with around 10 million workers still out of jobs. Millions of those are related to government-induced shutdowns because of the pandemic.
On Thursday (Feb. 18), the U.S. Department of Labor reported 861,000 more unemployment claims since last week. That number, CNBC noted, is still markedly higher than anything from before the pandemic.
Earlier this month, Yellen said more stimulus funds could help get U.S. employment back to full strength by 2022, PYMNTS reported. She said without a big stimulus package, the unemployment rate would likely take until around 2025 to return to a pre-pandemic level.
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