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Brendan Greeley on the 500 Year History of the Dollar

Release Date: 06/01/2026

Barry Eichengreen on the History of Global Currencies

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Barry Eichengreen is well known author, economist, and economic historian from the University of California, Berkeley. In Barry’s first appearance on the show he discusses a career in untangling the world’s monetary history, the origins of his new book Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto, the first uses on currencies in the 7th Century BC, the unexpected start of the dollar, how we landed on the central bank model, the dollar’s rise to global reserve currency, which if any currencies as poised to take on the dollar, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube...

Yesha Yadav, Chris Odinet, and Andrea Tosato on the Moneyness of Stablecoins

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Yesha Yadav is a professor of law, the Milton R. Underwood Chair, the Associate Dean & Robert Belton Director of Culture & Community, and the Co-Faculty Director, Master of Laws (LL.M) Program at the Vanderbilt University Law School. Chris Odinet is a professor of law, Mosbacher Research Fellow, and Affiliate Professor of Finance at Texas A&M University School of Law. Andrea Tosato is professor of law at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. Yesha, Chris, and Andrea join the show to discuss their avenues into stablecoin regulation, their four-part definition of...

Jeffrey Lacker on What a New Fed Treasury Accord Might Look Like

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Jeffrey Lacker is the former president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank and is a senior affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jeff returns to the show to discuss the history of the Fed Treasury Accord, the state of fiscal dominance, his five proposals for a new Fed Treasury Accord, his calls for reform around the discount window, a memorial to his friend and colleague Charlie Plosser, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 20th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David on X: ...

Nik Bhatia on Bitcoin and the Case for Using Stablecoins for Statecraft

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Nik Bhatia is an author of two economics books, a visiting fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and the founder of The Bitcoin Layer. In Nik’s first appearance on the podcast, he discusses his niche in the Bitcoin community, the role of Bitcoin as a transaction asset, the threat or lack thereof of quantum computing on Bitcoin, his issues with the current eurodollar market, his new proposal to use stablecoins as statecraft, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 5th, 2026 Subscribe to...

Bryan Cutsinger, Peter Ireland, and Will Luther on Lessons Learned from the Fed Framework Review

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Bryan Cutsinger is an assistant professor of economics at the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University. Peter Ireland is a professor of Economics at Boston College. Will Luther is an associate professor of economics at the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University and is the director of the American Institute for Economic Research’s Sound Money Project. Bryan, Peter, and Will return to the show to discuss the big takeaways from the 2025 Fed framework review, the flip flopping of FIT to FAIT back to FIT, the biggest lessons from the 2020 Fed framework review, the...

Brendan Greeley on the 500 Year History of the Dollar

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Brendan Greeley is a veteran journalist from the Financial Times and current PhD student at Princeton studying monetary history. In Brendan’s first appearance on the show, he discusses why he went for a PhD after being a journalist for 20 years, why the dollar’s history goes far beyond America’s founding, when America actually achieved a currency union, the untold origins of the dollar, how Herbert and Lou Hoover’s date nights played a role in the history of the dollar, the crucial importance of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz in understanding the dollar’s history, the happy...

David Zaring on Skinny Charters and the Future of Banking

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

David Zaring is legal scholar and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In David’s first appearance on the show, he discusses the role the Great Financial Crisis played in FinReg scholarship, how he came up with the term “skinny” in the new skinny Fed master accounts, the tumultuous road of Custodia vs. the Fed, a reimagined way to look at federal bank charters, whether commerce and banking are actually still separate, Fed independence and how it functions in a more corporatist model, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s...

Bill Beach on the Future of United States’ Economic Statistics and Fiscal Position

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Bill Beach is the former commissioner of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the current executive director of the Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill. In Bill’s first appearance on the show he discusses a career in and around public service, the important niche his new organization fills, the frightening fiscal outlook of the United States, exactly how long we have before Social Security runs out, why he believes it will take lots of small changes instead of a big one to fix our fiscal outlook, the important role of the BLS, why our statistical methods needs reform, the most underrated economic...

Tyler Goodspeed on Challenging the Way Economists Look at Recessions

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Tyler Goodspeed is the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors and is currently a chief economist in the private sector. In Tyler’s first appearance on the podcast he discusses his new book highlighting a different way of looking at recessions, the challenge of breaking away from the human inclination of ascribing patterns to random phenomena, whether recessions are more Dorian Gray or Peter Pan, what history and stories like Jay Cooke tell us about recessions, how to evaluate supply side shocks and the 2008 Financial Crisis, why Milton Friedman’s Plucking model might be the...

Peter Conti-Brown and David Beckworth on All Things Financial Regulation

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Recorded live in front of the Wharton Financial Regulation Conference, former guest Peter Conti-Brown joins David Beckworth as a Macro Musings co-host on this week’s episode. Peter and David discuss the inflection point of 2008 in FinReg scholarship, how Macro Musings has become just as much a show about financial regulation as about macro, what to make of the Trump administrations changes to bank supervision, whether we should be enthusiastic about the GENIUS Act and digital assets, the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the crisis that could become Claude Mythos, why networks and...

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Check out the transcript for this week’s episode, now with links.

Recorded on May 4th, 2026

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:12 - Brendan’s Career

00:06:27 - How Old Is the Dollar?

00:25:24 - Where Did the Dollar Start?

00:38:11 - The Modern Dollar

00:57:08 - Future of the Dollar

01:01:59 - Outro

TOPICS