Last week, while testifying before the U.S. Congress, the new head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Jerome Powell acknowledged that the U.S. government is not on a sustainable fiscal path.

CNBC has a video excerpt of Powell’s testimony on February 27, 2018, which came in response to questions asked by Representative Bruce Poliquin (R-ME), but here is the relevant portion of the transcript:

Poliquin: “Mr. Powell, do you take a different tack from the folks that were here, earlier, the last administration, do you think this is a problem?

Powell: “Do I think this is a?…”

Poliquin: “Yes. This 21 trillion dollars in debt.”

Powell: “Well, yeah, I think… I think that we’re not on a sustainable fiscal path and I think that we need to be on a sustainable fiscal path.”

That’s quite a refreshing change from the previous leadership of the U.S. Federal Reserve, who didn’t acknowledge that there was a problem with the growth of the U.S. national debt until their last months on the job.