Robin Brooks on the Dollar, Fiscal Dominance, and Geoeconomics
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Release Date: 08/25/2025
Raghuram Rajan on the Impact of the Ratcheting Effect of The Fed’s QE Program
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Subscribe to the new ! Raghuram Rajan is a finance professor at the University of Chicago and leads the Group of 30. Previously he was the chief economist at the IMF and the governor of the Reserve Bank of India. In Raghuram’s first appearance on the show, he discusses his famous 2005 Jackson Hole speech, how he righted the ship on India’s emerging economy, the consequences of zero-sum thinking, the differences between being a policymaker and an academic, the ratcheting effect of QE on the Fed’s balance sheet, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with...
info_outline
Andrew Martinez on the Art of Forecasting
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Andrew Martinez is a former Treasure economist and currently is an assistant professor of economics at American University. In Andrew’s first appearance on the show, he discusses his career as a forecaster, the current state of forecasting, the intersection of AI and forecasting, the role of the SEP and monetary policy surprises, his work with David on the NGDP Gap measure, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on January 13th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show...
info_outline
Dan Awrey on the Future of the U.S. Payments System in a Digital World
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Dan Awrey is a professor of Law at Cornell University and the author of the new book Beyond Banks: Technology, Regulation, and the Future of Money. Dan returns to the show to discuss his new book, the shadow monetary system, the case for markets to correct this problem, Gresham’s new law, his proposals for fixing the payments system, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on January 13th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Dan Awrey on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro...
info_outline
Scott Sumner on Monetary Policy Confusion in Our Current Policy Debates
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Scott Sumner is the Ralph G. Hawtrey Chair Emeritus of Monetary Policy and the founder of the Monetary Policy Program at Mercatus. Scott returns to the show, to discuss his life post Mercatus, nominal GDP counterfactuals of the pandemic and the Great Financial Crisis, the role of QE in inflation, the fears about Fed independence, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on January 15th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings to David's new BTS...
info_outline
Tyler Muir on How to Understand the Fed’s Quantitative Easing
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Tyler Muir is a professor of finance at UCLA. In Tyler’s first appearance on the show, he discusses how he became a leading scholar on quantitative easing, what things the Fed can learn in responding to crises, why QE matters, how QE transformed the bond market, the new “Tyler Rule”, QE’s role in the COVID Pandemic, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on January 8th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Tyler Muir on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings ...
info_outline
Richard Berner on Growth of the Private Credit and the Role of Fiscal Dominance on Treasury Markets
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Richard Berner is the former director of the Office of Financial Research and was a counselor of the Treasury Secretary. In Richard’s first appearance on the show, he discusses a career that included public service and Wall Street, the fragility of global liquidity, the implications of fiscal dominance, the expansion of private credit, the 2023 SVB banking turmoil, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on January 7th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro...
info_outline
Aaron Klein on the US’s Real-Time Payments Problem and the Impact of Covid Era Quantitative Easing
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Aaron Klein is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Aaron returns to the show to discuss his paper with George Selgin calling for real time payments, the inequality caused by the Fed’s current payment processes, the results of Covid time QE, recommendations for dealing with future crises, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on December 11th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Aaron Klein on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings to...
info_outline
Per Åsberg Sommar on the State of the Riksbank and Operating Systems Around the World
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Per Åsberg Sommar is a senior advisor in the markets department at the Swedish central bank. In Per’s first appearance on the show, he discusses his career as a central banker, the history of the Riksbank, evolutions in inflation targeting at the Riksbank, changes in the Sweden’s central banks operating system, its new tool called the Deposit Requirement Facility, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on December 12th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our...
info_outline
2025 Macro Musings Retrospective
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
David Beckworth and producer Sam Alburger dive into the last year of Macro Musings. They discuss David’s foray into Substack, their favorite episodes of the year, the most popular episodes of 2025, David’s push for NGDP targeting, this year’s most hotly contested episode, how the year 2025 will be remembered in macro history, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on December 10th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings to David's new...
info_outline
Veronique de Rugy on the Impending American Fiscal Crisis
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Veronique de Rugy is the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. In Veronique’s first appearance on Macro Musings she discusses her career as a think tanker’s think tanker, what the difference is between classical liberals and libertarians, how America’s mindset has shifted on trade and immigration, the fiscal health of the United States, the US’s impending debt crises, solutions for fixing the fiscal health of the United States, and much more. Check out the for this week’s episode, now with...
info_outlineRobin Brooks is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Robin returns to the show to discuss his previous appearance in March of 2020, life at a think tank, the changing or not-so-much status of the dollar, Trump’s trade war, the current landscape of geoeconomics and much more.
Check out the transcript for this week’s episode, now with links.
Recorded on August 7th, 2025
Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus
Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth
Follow Robin on X: @Robin_J_Brooks
Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings
Check out our Macro Musings merch!
Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel
Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:50 - Looking Back at the Pandemic War and Fiscal Dominance
00:07:07 - Robin’s Career: From Wall Street to Think Tank
00:18:53 - The Status of the US Dollar
00:27:28 - The Trade War
00:32:40 - Deglobalization
00:39:29 - Geoeconomics
00:47:28 - Secondary Sanctions
00:55:23 - Outro