Give states billions and you help the entire country: Ben Bernanke

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Cheung joins Zack Guzman to discuss Ben Bernanke's latest op-ed on coronavirus fiscal stimulus.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Back to live coverage here on "The Ticker," an interesting Warning to provide here from former fed chair Ben Bernanke, warning about the issues that he saw in the wake of the great financial recession back in 2008-'09. And for more on that, I want to bring on Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung, who has a bit of that warning. And to be fair, Brian, we've talked about this on this show quite a bit. But I guess it sounds better coming from him.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, former fed chairman Ben Bernanke, yes, echoing Y-Fi PM and The Ticker, although maybe he's not watching this programming. But he had a "New York Times" op ed this morning where he said that states and localities are in, quote, "desperate need of additional federal intervention" and there could be a significantly worse and protracted recession if state and local governments don't get that help.

Now, keep in mind, since February there's already been about 1.5 million job losses in the local and the state governments, most of that in those local and city governments. But Ben Bernanke saying that as a member of the restart and recovery commission in New Jersey, he's already seen that state New Jersey where the governor is Phil Murphy already furloughing a lot of employees.

And he said in the op ed, quote, "multiply new Jersey's problems to reflect the experiences of 50 state governments and thousands of local governments and the result, without more help from Congress, could be a significantly worse and protracted recession," end quote. And again, Ben Bernanke is saying here that it's not just New Jersey. It's all these states around the country that really need that support, especially as you have Mitch McConnell from the majority side in addition to the White House saying that they could work on that phase four deal, although we don't know the extent of how municipal funding will be a part of that.

Ben Bernanke, again, the former fed chairman saying that should definitely be a focal point as these states and their services that they offer, which are so essential, could be at risk.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, pointing out since February, New Jersey's seen state and local governments layoff close to 1.5 million workers. And that fear that that number might also be what we see in other states also facing shortfalls in the billions here in 2020 with Brian Cheung, appreciate you bringing us that. And who knows, maybe he is watching this program, I'll have you know. We do a lot of good stuff here on "The Ticker."