Economist Adam Posen spoke in Weekend Edition about the current economic state of the country. With Americans’ purchasing power going down, prices going up and the government continuing to spend money it doesn’t have, Posen says the country is in a situation similar to the early 1980s when people were wondering if we could ever climb out of bad economic times.

Yes, he says, but it will take:

It’s going to take a change in behavior and some effort, Posen said. Now we’re at the state of someone realizing they’ve been overeating a lot of junk food and not working out.