via CNBC:
- Economic growth won’t last as the U.S. labors under the burden of growing entitlement programs, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan tells CNBC.
- He also cites the effects of weakness around the world.
Economic growth won’t last as the U.S. labors under the burden of growing entitlement programs and weakness around the world, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC.
The long-time central bank chief repeated his warnings about the weight that Social Security, Medicare and other programs are having on what have been otherwise solid gains over the past few years.
“I think the real problem is over the long run, we’ve got this significant continued drain coming from entitlements, which are basically draining capital investment dollar for dollar,” he told CNBC’s Sara Eisen during a “Squawk on the Street ” interview.
“Without any major change in entitlements, entitlements are going to rise. Why? Because the population is aging. There’s no way to reverse that, and the politics of it are awful, as you well know,” Greenspan added.
While he said the economy looks “reasonably good” in the short run, he expects that over the longer term, growth “fades very dramatically.”