Nancy Pelosi Says America Could Have a Depression

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won’t give an actual date for when the economy would reopen but she has said hopefully it will be soon.

“We could have a depression because so many people are out of work, and that’s why we have to get the system really energized and working,” she said in a “Mad Money” interview with Jim Cramer on Thursday. “Let’s get out those unemployment checks. Let’s get out those direct payments. Let’s get these loans freed up,” she added.

When asked if shops could open up in May, she said, “This is an era of entrepreneurship like none we’ve ever seen before because of the challenge to small businesses. Let’s recognize what that is — that optimism is — to America, but I don’t think anybody can tell you a date unless we just take it a week at a time. But let’s be hopeful that it’s soon.”

On CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Cramer asked the same question to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said he believed it is possible to get the economy rolling again as soon as May.

Mnuchin had said that The Trump administration is currently making sure businesses “have the liquidity that they need to operate their business in the interim,” he said.