Neha Narula, Anders Brownworth, and Daniel Aronoff on Understanding Stablecoins in the GENIUS Era
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Release Date: 03/16/2026
Nellie Liang on Stablecoins After GENIUS, Private Money, and the Global Dollar
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Nellie Liang is a former Treasury and Federal Reserve official and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. In Nellie's first appearance on the show, she discusses the future of stablecoins following the GENIUS Act, what stablecoins mean for private money and illicit finance, Fed master accounts, the global role of the dollar, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on August 18th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: ...
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Stephen Miran on Regulatory Dominance, Shrinking the Fed’s Balance Sheet, and the Return of Monetarism
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Stephen Miran is a former governor of the Federal Reserve, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Donald J. Trump, and currently a senior strategist for Hudson Bay Capital Management. In Steve’s third appearance on the show, he discusses his life as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and as a Federal Reserve governor, the Fed’s balance sheet, regulatory dominance, the future of the discount window, the possible return of monetarism, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode,...
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Donald Kohn on the Fed’s Past, Present, and Future
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Donald Kohn is a 40-year veteran of the Federal Reserve System and a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. Don returns to the program to discuss the lessons of the Greenspan Fed, how Kevin Warsh should think about communication and forward guidance, why inflation remains a concern, the Fed’s new task forces, the future of its monetary policy tools, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on July 22nd, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow...
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Ben Harris on AI, Fiscal Sustainability, and the Resilience of the U.S. Economy
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Ben Harris is vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution and previously served in senior economic policy roles at the Treasury Department and Council of Economic Advisers. Ben returns to the program to discuss why recent economic shocks have been less damaging than expected, the outlook for inflation and energy markets, whether AI can improve the U.S. fiscal outlook, why we should temper our AI optimism, how longer lifespans and higher interest rates could complicate the fiscal picture, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check...
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Bill Nelson on Shrinking the Fed’s Balance Sheet and Reviving Interbank Markets
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Bill Nelson is chief research officer and chief economist at the Bank Policy Institute and a former deputy director of the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board. In Bill’s 11th appearance on the show, he discusses how central banks are rethinking their operating systems, the case for a smaller Fed balance sheet and more routine discount window borrowing, the revival of interbank markets, lessons from Silicon Valley Bank, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on July...
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Gianluca Benigno on Central Bank Balance Sheets, Stablecoins, and Nonlinear Inflation
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Gianluca Benigno is a professor of economics at the University of Lausanne. Previously, he was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an economist at the Bank of England. Gianluca returns to the program to discuss financial r-star, the changing landscape of central bank balance sheets, the unique challenges facing the Swiss National Bank, how stablecoins could affect Treasury markets and the demand for reserves, the return of nonlinear inflation, its implications for monetary policy, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out...
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Barry Eichengreen, Paul Blustein, and Brendan Greeley on Dollar Dominance
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Barry Eichengreen is a is well known author, economist, and economic historian from the University of California, Berkeley. Paul Blustein is a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal journalist who has authored several acclaimed books on global economic institutions. Brendan Greeley is a veteran journalist from the Financial Times and current PhD student at Princeton studying monetary history. They all return to the show for a special roundtable discussion where they discuss the history of dominant currencies, whether we will always end up with a single reserve currency, whether...
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David Wessel on the Fed’s Current Inflection Point
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
David Wessel is a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings and is the director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. In David’s first appearance on the show, he discusses stories of the Greenspan Fed, what is was like in Europe when the euro was adopted, the legacy of the Powell Fed, his thoughts on the great man theory, the outlook for the Kevin Warsh Fed, the ongoing challenge of Fed independence, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on June 15th, 2026 Subscribe to David's...
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Sam Lyman on the Digital Payments Race Between the US and China
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Sam Lyman is the head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and formerly was a senior advisor and speechwriter for Treasury Secretary Bessent. In Sam’s first appearance on the show, he discusses Secretary Bessent’s secret skill, the competition in the digital payments space between the US and China, why the strategic Bitcoin reserve is important, what the future of Bitcoin holds, where things stand with the CLARITY Act, the Q Day conundrum, whether Satoshi Yakamoto is alive or dead, where Sam thinks the anti-AI sentiment is coming from, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube...
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Stephan Luck on What History can Teach Us about Financial Stability
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Stephan Luck is a Financial Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In Stephan’s first appearance on the show, he discusses how the 2008 Great Financial Crisis shaped his career, how he and his coauthors leverage LLMs to comb through massive amounts of historical data, what this data can teach us about responding to bank failures, what people get wrong when they try and make historical analogies to the GENIUS era, the lessons we can learn from the German hyperinflation, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now...
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Neha Narula is the director of the Digital Currency Initiative which is based out of the Media Lab at MIT. Anders Brownworth is veteran software engineer in the crypto space and is a Senior Research Advisor at DCI. Daniel Aronoff is Research Affiliate in the MIT Department of Economics and a Collaborator at DCI. Neha, Anders, and Daniel join the show to discuss their work at DCI, the current state of stablecoins, their paper on the hidden plumbing of stablecoins, the basic mechanics of stablecoins, the technical and operational risks of stablecoins, the implications for the treasury market, interoperability between blockchains, and much more.
Check out the transcript for this week’s episode, now with links.
Recorded on February 27th, 2026
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Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:41 - Background of the Group
00:03:11 - Digital Currency Initiative
00:05:36 - State of Stablecoins
00:10:42 - Hidden Plumbing of Stablecoins
00:15:42 - Basic Mechanics of Stablecoins
00:26:07 - Technical and Operational Risks of Stablecoins
00:39:09 - Implications for the Treasury Market
00:48:18 - Business Model of Stablecoins
00:49:24 - Interoperability Between Blockchains
00:52:53 - What’s the Deal with Tether?
00:56:23 - Outro