- Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden’s chief economist, faced difficulties explaining how money works in a documentary or ‘Finding The Money’, despite his role.
- He stumbled over concepts, highlighting confusion around printing and borrowing government money.
- Bernstein, who chairs the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, has no formal training in economics and appeared bewildered in the video.
Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden’s chief economist and economic policy advisor, appears in a clip in which he struggles to explain how money works.
Bernstein was being interviewed for an upcoming documentary on the economy titled Find the money.
“We all use money, and yet the questions about what money is and where it comes from remain elusive,” the film teases in a trailer.
But it seems that even Bernstein, who has no formal training in economics, found it difficult to answer the question.
“The United States government can’t go bankrupt because we can print our own money,” Bernstein began, giving a direct answer at the beginning.
Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden’s chief economist, faced difficulties explaining how money works in a documentary or ‘Finding The Money’, despite his role as Biden’s chief economist.
“They print the dollars, so why does the government borrow?” Then the interviewer asks.
‘Well, some of the language is just confusing. The government definitely prints its own money. The government definitely prints money and lends it. “The government definitely prints money,” Bernstein rambled repeatedly, while seemingly struggling with the basics.
«Then lend that money by selling bonds. Is that what they do?’ she wondered.
‘They sell bonds and then people buy the bonds and lend the money. “Yes,” Bernstein continued, looking increasingly confused.
Bernstein, left, was also chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden during the Obama administration in 2009.
“The language and concepts can be unnecessarily confusing,” he surmised.
‘I don’t understand. I don’t know what they’re talking about,’ she finally admitted.
‘The government clearly prints money and does it all the time. And the government is clearly going into debt. Otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation about debt and deficit.
‘I don’t think there’s anything confusing there.
Bernstein was confirmed as chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers last June.
The state of the economy weighs on voters’ minds as the November presidential campaign heats up.
Despite the strength of the labor market, Americans remain generally exasperated by high prices, with many of them blaming President Joe Biden.
Even with the slowdown in hiring in April, last month’s job growth represented a solid increase, although it was the lowest monthly increase since October.
As households across the country continue to spend steadily, many employers have had to continue hiring to meet customer demand.
Although the unemployment rate rose from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent in April, it was the 27th consecutive month in which the rate remained below 4 percent, tying the longest streak since the 1990s. 1960.
Persistent inflation has also kept interest rates high, making it even more difficult than usual for prospective young homebuyers to get a foothold on the property ladder.