Chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisors Edward Lazear said on Sunday that although certain parts of the country may already be in a recession, other parts or not and, he said, the bailout bill passed by Congress two weeks ago is already paying off.

“We are seeing what anyone would characterize as a recession in some parts of the country,” the man who is President George W. Bush’s main economic adviser told CNN.

The Bush administration, he said, “has taken the right steps to turn things around.” Additionally, he said, the bailout package has already started to encourage banks to start lending to each other once again.

Since one of the major reasons for the financial crisis was banks’ unwillingness to lend to one another – out of fear that they would not see the money back – it seems quite possible that, if Lazear told the truth to CNN, the financial markets may start to recover somewhat soon.