AP Photo Ben Bernanke on 2016: 'The political environment is not very good'

Ben Bernanke said he is optimistic that the wave of "populism" sweeping the United States will eventually crest, alluding to the rise of Donald Trump on the right and "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders on the left.

"There is a lot of anger about economic developments in general, and the Fed is one object of that anger," the former Federal Reserve chairman said in an interview with MarketWatch published on Tuesday. "I hope things will get better over time."


“I think, as the economy improves and as some of the extreme predictions of Fed critics don’t come true — hyperinflation and the like — that the anger will diminish,” he said. “But the political environment certainly is not very good.”

Bernanke, who headed the central bank during the 2008 financial crisis, also urged Congress to play a greater role in fighting or mitigating any future recession through deficit spending.

“I don’t think it is something that we need to be thinking about in the United States right now, but just in general, having fiscal policy become a bigger part of our recession-fighting toolkit would be desirable,” Bernanke said.

Bernanke noted the political barriers at play and said he doesn't know whether lawmakers will put their differences aside to prevent another crisis. But if the next administration finds itself on a path toward recession and the Fed says it’s “running out of weapons,” he said — for example, an inability to reduce interest rates — fiscal authorities should consider how they want to respond.

“So, it is nothing to do with the Fed per se,” he said. “It has to do with whether or not Congress wants to take the necessary action to help restore growth in a hypothetical future situation where the economy is slowing and the Fed has exhausted its firepower.”