Former Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen says the central bank has crossed lines she didn’t believe possible in efforts to buttress the financial markets from COVID-19, but she remains concerned job losses caused by the pandemic will leave permanent scars on the global economy

Ms Yellen, who is an adviser to funds management giant Magellan, said in an interview with Magellan’s billionaire chairman Hamish Douglass the Fed’s willingness to act “quickly and forcefully” by dropping interest rates and buying about $US3 trillion ($4.3 trillion) worth of assets had prevented the sort of breakdown seen when the Long Term Capital Management crisis brought markets to their knees in 1998.