The U.S. economy has about 10 million fewer jobs than it should and economic output is about $1 trillion below where it ought to be, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said.
“Our economy still remains well short of its potential,” Summers said in a speech in Calgary today. “That downturn casts a substantial shadow forward over the U.S. economy.”
Summers, who is a professor and researcher at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, said he doesn’t anticipate any “large fiscal actions” from the U.S. government in the next months. Changes will probably come after the presidential elections, he said at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy-sponsored event.
“I am very encouraged by President Obama’s budget which puts a focus on growth but makes clear a commitment to containing health-care costs and putting the debt to GDP ratio in the U.S. on the downward trajectory to which it should return,” he said.
© Copyright 2013 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.