Austan Goolsbee, the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, called the economy's recovery Thursday a "pretty long lag."
Goolsbee, an Obama loyalist and former adviser, seemed to confirm that the recovery has been poor.
CNN host Carol Costello asked Goolsbee about the many supporters of Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) who complain that they have not seen the benefits of an economic recovery still.
"Well, A, it's a big country. You know, you got 320 million people, you're going to find tens of millions of people who support any view. I think it's usual that as you come out of recessions, particularly deep ones and financial crises, it takes a pretty long lag," Goolsbee said.
"People want to be sure that things are getting better and that it's not some false dawn, green shoots that never grow into plants, and you have seen in the polling kind of an interesting dynamic where they ask them, ‘How do you think the economy is doing?’ they answer, ‘Terrible,’" Goolsbee said. "But if they ask, ‘How are you doing, and are you optimistic for next year?’, you've seen that actually start turning up a bit. So I'm hopeful that people are going to come around to the view that it's at least getting better."
After Costello brought up potential actions by the Federal Reserve, Goolsbee implied that there has not been sustained economic growth yet.
"It's been my view the Fed should not do something unless and until we have sustained growth in this country and we're quite sure that there's not going to be a financial crisis coming out of either China or Europe," Goolsbee said. "But, you know, I've said that publicly. It's clear the Fed is of a different mindset."