2010-08-02 11:10

WASHINGTON – Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says he thinks the US economy is having a modest recovery, but right now there's a "pause" in that recovery, so it feels like a "quasi-recession."

In this Sunday August 2010, photo released by NBC, 'Meet the Press' moderator David Gregory, interviews former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, right, at the NBC studios in Washington. [Agencies]

Greenspan says long-term unemployment is pulling the economy apart even though large banks are doing much better and large companies are in excellent shape.

Greenspan predicts that unemployment will remain where it is, hovering around 9.5 percent, for the rest of the year.

Cheering the comeback of the stock market, Greenspan tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that a rising stock market will do more to stimulate the economy than any of the remedies now being discussed.