Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Hosted by David Beckworth of the Mercatus Center, Macro Musings pulls back the curtain on the important macroeconomic issues of the past, present, and future.
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George Selgin on the New Deal and the History of Banking Crises
10/05/2026
George Selgin on the New Deal and the History of Banking Crises
was a senior fellow and director emeritus at the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute and professor emeritus of economics at the University of Georgia. George returns to the show to discuss the New Deal’s record on economic recovery, the Fed’s balance sheet and operating system, the Main Street Lending Program, and the history of banking crises, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on July 28th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow George Selgin on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:35 - George’s Book on the New Deal 00:03:31 - Fed’s Balance Sheet Policy Task Force 00:25:59 - The Fed’s Main Street Lending Program 00:32:58 - Myths and Fallacies 00:54:06 - Outro
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Erik Thedéen on QE, Central Bank Independence, and Digital Payments
09/28/2026
Erik Thedéen on QE, Central Bank Independence, and Digital Payments
is governor of Sweden's Riksbank, the world’s oldest central bank, Chairman of the Executive Board, and the first sitting central bank governor to appear on Macro Musings. In his first appearance on the show, Erik joins to discuss the history and operation of the Riksbank, the lessons learned from QE, the future of digital payments, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on September 4th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:41 - Erik's Career 00:03:03 - History of the Riksbank 00:13:04 - Riksbank's Inflation Target 00:15:28 - Riksbank's Operating Framework 00:25:09 - Riksbank's Experiences with QE 00:30:26 - Deposit Facility at Riksbank 00:39:31 - Digital Payments 00:47:27 - Dollar-Based Stablecoins and Sweden 00:50:09 - Tokenization 00:52:37 - Outro
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Ellen Correia Golay on All-to-All Trading and Treasury Market Liquidity
09/21/2026
Ellen Correia Golay on All-to-All Trading and Treasury Market Liquidity
Ellen Correia Golay is a lead Treasury advisor in the markets group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Ellen returns to the program to discuss the lessons of the March 2020 “dash for cash,” how all-to-all trading and other market structure reforms could strengthen Treasury market liquidity and resilience, the rise of principal trading firms, and the future of the Fed’s standing repo operations, and much more. Watch the on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on August 19th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:20 - Ellen's Career and Responsibilities 00:09:29 - The Treasury Market 00:17:15 - All-to-All Trading 00:25:19 - Treasury Market Liquidity 00:32:59 - Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee 00:39:28 - Central Clearing 00:44:51 - Ellen's Policy Wishes 00:46:20 - Outro
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Nellie Liang on Stablecoins After GENIUS, Private Money, and the Global Dollar
09/14/2026
Nellie Liang on Stablecoins After GENIUS, Private Money, and the Global Dollar
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: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:23 - Nellie's Career 00:05:48 - The GENIUS Act 00:11:31 - Stablecoins as Private Money 00:27:32 - Fed Master Accounts 00:29:53 - Dollar as Global Reserve Currency 00:35:42 - Stablecoins and US Debt 00:46:49 - Nellie's Policy Recommendations 00:50:11 - Outro
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Stephen Miran on Regulatory Dominance, Shrinking the Fed’s Balance Sheet, and the Return of Monetarism
09/07/2026
Stephen Miran on Regulatory Dominance, Shrinking the Fed’s Balance Sheet, and the Return of Monetarism
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, now with links. Recorded on August 20th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Stephen Miran on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:42 - Life as CEA Chair 00:08:40 - Reducing the Fed's Balance Sheet 00:42:23 - A Return to Monetarism? 00:54:32 - Outro
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Donald Kohn on the Fed’s Past, Present, and Future
08/31/2026
Donald Kohn on the Fed’s Past, Present, and Future
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 David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:25 - Working with Paul Volcker 00:08:22 - Working with Alan Greenspan 00:22:11 - The Kevin Warsh Fed 00:31:21 - Fighting Inflation 00:43:26 - Balance Sheet Task Force 01:08:21 - Outro
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Ben Harris on AI, Fiscal Sustainability, and the Resilience of the U.S. Economy
08/24/2026
Ben Harris on AI, Fiscal Sustainability, and the Resilience of the U.S. Economy
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 out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on July 20th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Follow Ben on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:55 - Reasons We Were Wrong 00:11:58 - Stubborn Inflation 00:14:57 - Crude Is Not Really the Problem 00:20:12 - A Novel Sanctions Regime 00:30:35 - Temper Your AI Optimism 00:39:34 - Longer Lives, But Larger Debt 00:45:00 - AI and the Future of Interest Rates 00:49:24 - Policy Implications 00:56:26 - Outro
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Bill Nelson on Shrinking the Fed’s Balance Sheet and Reviving Interbank Markets
08/17/2026
Bill Nelson on Shrinking the Fed’s Balance Sheet and Reviving Interbank Markets
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 20th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:29 - Bill's Work with Central Banks Abroad 00:11:03 - Reducing the Fed's Balance Sheet 00:30:28 - Fed's Use of a Demand-Driven System 00:40:40 - Voluntary Reserve Target 00:54:31 - Outro
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Gianluca Benigno on Central Bank Balance Sheets, Stablecoins, and Nonlinear Inflation
08/10/2026
Gianluca Benigno on Central Bank Balance Sheets, Stablecoins, and Nonlinear Inflation
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 the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on June 22nd, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Gianluca Benigno on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:41 - R-Double-Star 00:04:10 - Central Bank Balance Sheets 00:09:22 - Swiss National Bank 00:32:05 - Working Paper on the Regulation of Stablecoins 00:45:41 - Inflation 00:53:19 - Outro
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Barry Eichengreen, Paul Blustein, and Brendan Greeley on Dollar Dominance
08/03/2026
Barry Eichengreen, Paul Blustein, and Brendan Greeley on Dollar Dominance
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 monetary sovereignty is earned or given, the question of exorbitant privilege, what there is to do about a second China Shock, the future of dollars in the digital age, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 11th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Barry Eichengreen on X: Follow Paul Blustein on X: Follow Brendan Greeley on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:01 - On Each Author’s Book 00:11:12 - Globally Dominant Currencies 00:25:37 - Single Reserve Currency 00:28:34 - Fed’s Control Over Global Dollar System 00:38:39 - Exorbitant Privilege 00:46:30 - China Shock 2.0 00:49:23 - Future of the Global Dollar System 00:58:16 - Outro
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David Wessel on the Fed’s Current Inflection Point
07/27/2026
David Wessel on the Fed’s Current Inflection Point
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 Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow David Wessel on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:48 - David’s Career 00:19:30 - Legacies of Fed Chairmans 00:31:51 - Kevin Warsh Fed 00:43:34 - Fed Independence 00:55:13 - Outro
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Sam Lyman on the Digital Payments Race Between the US and China
07/20/2026
Sam Lyman on the Digital Payments Race Between the US and China
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 Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 21st, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David on X: Follow Sam on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:49 - Sam’s Career 00:05:37 - Nation-States and Digital Payments 00:14:40 - Strategic Bitcoin Reserve 00:18:29 - Future of Bitcoin 00:24:27 - Bitcoin vs. Dollar-Based Stablecoins 00:38:32 - Update on the CLARITY Act 00:44:48 - Quantum Computing 00:49:34 - Satoshi Yakamoto 00:52:20 - Foreign Campaign Against AI 00:57:44 - Outro
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Stephan Luck on What History can Teach Us about Financial Stability
07/13/2026
Stephan Luck on What History can Teach Us about Financial Stability
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 with links. Recorded on June 1st, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:55 - Stephan’s Career 00:11:21 - Bank Failures 00:28:19 - Policy Implications of Bank Failures 00:37:21 - National Banking System 00:46:30 - German Hyperinflation 00:57:06 - Outro
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Barry Eichengreen on the History of Global Currencies
07/06/2026
Barry Eichengreen on the History of Global Currencies
Barry Eichengreen is a 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 Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 27th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David on X: Follow Barry on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:17 - Barry’s Books 00:10:14 - Money Beyond Borders 00:17:17 - Lydia and Greece 00:20:46 - Renaissance of Credits 00:23:36 - Spanish Silver 00:28:26 - The Emergence of Central Banks 00:38:11 - British Empire vs. Roman Empire 00:43:34 - Dollar as One of the Dominant Reserve Currencies 00:56:29 - Outro
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Yesha Yadav, Chris Odinet, and Andrea Tosato on the Moneyness of Stablecoins
06/29/2026
Yesha Yadav, Chris Odinet, and Andrea Tosato on the Moneyness of Stablecoins
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 moneyness (nature of the claim, safety, discharge capacity, and negotiability), how Tether and Circle stack up to these definitions, the stablecoin bankruptcy conundrum, the progress the GENIUS Act made on closing legal loopholes, their prescriptions for policymakers, 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: Follow Chris on X: Follow Andrea on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:26 - Career Backgrounds of Chris, Yesha, and Andrea 00:02:35 - Background on the Paper 00:06:52 - Structure of Money 00:17:33 - Moneyness: Nature of the Claim 00:22:37 - Moneyness: Safety 00:23:45 - Moneyness: Discharge Capacity 00:30:50 - Moneyness: Negotiability 00:31:55 - How Stablecoins Currently Hold Up in Moneyness 00:58:18 - Recommendations to Policymakers 01:10:51 - Outro
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Jeffrey Lacker on What a New Fed Treasury Accord Might Look Like
06/22/2026
Jeffrey Lacker on What a New Fed Treasury Accord Might Look Like
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: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:56 - Fed Treasury Accord 00:18:26 - Fiscal Dominance 00:22:05 - Jeff’s Five Proposals 00:49:05 - Charlie Plosser 00:55:49 - Outro
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Nik Bhatia on Bitcoin and the Case for Using Stablecoins for Statecraft
06/15/2026
Nik Bhatia on Bitcoin and the Case for Using Stablecoins for Statecraft
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 David's Substack: Follow David on X: Follow Nik X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:49 - Nik’s Career and Background 00:12:32 - Crypto Assets for Transactions 00:18:28 - Quantum Computing and Bitcoin 00:24:08 - Stablecoins as Statecraft 00:58:36 - Outro
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Bryan Cutsinger, Peter Ireland, and Will Luther on Lessons Learned from the Fed Framework Review
06/08/2026
Bryan Cutsinger, Peter Ireland, and Will Luther on Lessons Learned from the Fed Framework Review
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 case for NGDP targeting at the Fed, hope for future reviews, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 6th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David on X: Follow Bryan X: Follow Peter X: Follow Will X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:51 - Origins of Bryan, Will, and Peter's Paper 00:03:40 - Big Takeaways 00:06:14 - The Fed’s 2020 Framework Review 00:12:43 - Lessons Learned from 2020 Review 00:14:38 - Nominal GDP Targeting and Productivity Shocks 00:26:59 - Reviewing the Fed’s 2025 Framework Review 00:57:20 - Hopes for the Future 01:03:06 - Outro
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Brendan Greeley on the 500 Year History of the Dollar
06/01/2026
Brendan Greeley on the 500 Year History of the Dollar
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 accident of Eurodollars, what the future of dollars looks like, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on May 4th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David on X: Follow Brendan X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings 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
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David Zaring on Skinny Charters and the Future of Banking
05/25/2026
David Zaring on Skinny Charters and the Future of Banking
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 episode, now with links. Recorded on April 24th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow David Zaring X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:04 - The Great Financial Crisis and FinReg Scholarship 00:04:58 - David’s Experience with Fintech Charter Litigation 00:17:18 - Skinny Charters 00:37:16 - How to Govern the Fed 00:55:10 - Outro
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Bill Beach on the Future of United States’ Economic Statistics and Fiscal Position
05/18/2026
Bill Beach on the Future of United States’ Economic Statistics and Fiscal Position
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 statistical indicators, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on April 15th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Bill Beach X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:25 - Bill’s Career 00:10:11 - Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill 00:17:23 - Fiscal Challenges of the United States 00:30:05 - Surveys from Bureau of Labor Statistics 00:43:12 - Challenges to Survey Work 00:52:13 - Outro
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Tyler Goodspeed on Challenging the Way Economists Look at Recessions
05/11/2026
Tyler Goodspeed on Challenging the Way Economists Look at Recessions
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 best we have at modeling recessions, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on April 15th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:43 - Recessions 00:07:07 - Epiphanies or Apophanies 00:26:40 - Peter Pan vs. Dorian Gray 00:33:40 - Jay Cooke and the Railroad 00:39:00 - Models of Recessions 00:47:55 - Supply Shocks 00:50:12 - Recessions in Different Places 01:00:25 - Outro
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Peter Conti-Brown and David Beckworth on All Things Financial Regulation
05/04/2026
Peter Conti-Brown and David Beckworth on All Things Financial Regulation
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 Substacks are becoming more important, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on April 10th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:29 - History of Financial Regulation 00:04:23 - Monetary Policy vs. Financial Regulation 00:07:48 - Bank Supervision 00:11:59 - Digital Assets 00:22:48 - Claude Mythos and Banking 00:30:35 - The Market Argument for the Discount Window 00:35:44 - Academia vs. Real-World Impact 00:40:28 - Audience Q&A 00:54:16 - Outro
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Basil Halperin on Macroeconomic Policy in an Age of Transformative AI
04/27/2026
Basil Halperin on Macroeconomic Policy in an Age of Transformative AI
Basil Halperin is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia. In Basil’s first appearance on the show he discusses the famous but flawed Citrini essay, why Silicon Valley’s growth expectations aren’t showing up yet in interest rates, the impact of Less Than Zero by George Selgin, what the true frictions in the economy are, the differences between Calvo and menu-cost pricing, the impact of transformational AI on emerging economies and the housing market, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on March 27th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Basil Halperin on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:20 - Global Intelligence Crisis 00:07:04 - Transformative AI and Interest Rates 00:21:05 - Optimal Monetary Policy Under Menu Costs 00:48:13 - Transformative AI and its Macro Implications 00:55:41 - Outro
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Rich Clarida on Navigating Monetary Policy in Choppy Waters
04/20/2026
Rich Clarida on Navigating Monetary Policy in Choppy Waters
Rich Clarida was the vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and is currently a professor of economics at Columbia University and a managing director at PIMCO. Rich returns to the program to discuss whether we give the Fed too little credit for its soft landing, the problem of persistent inflation, how the Fed should respond to rapidly succeeding negative supply shocks, the case for nominal GDP, the state of the Fed’s balance sheet, why a synthetic FOMC could help the real FOMC, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on March 31st, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:03:59 - Persistent Inflation 00:11:14 - Inflation Expectations 00:18:34 - Responding to Negative Supply Shocks 00:29:38 - Nominal GDP 00:34:59 - Fed’s Balance Sheet 00:45:20 - Synthetic FOMCs 00:51:36 - Outro
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Kris Mitchener on What Actually Anchors the Price Level
04/13/2026
Kris Mitchener on What Actually Anchors the Price Level
Kris Mitchener is a professor of economics at Santa Clara University and is an economic and monetary historian. In Kris’s first appearance on the show, he discusses how he fell in love with building data sets out of old dusty archives, the origins and fall of bimetallism, the pros and cons of the gold standard, the problem of operating losses on the Fed’s balance sheet, what truly anchors the price level, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on March 4th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:33 - Kris’ Career Path 00:06:32 - What Is Bimetallism? 00:14:41 - The Gold Standard 00:28:55 - Disinflation Policies and Central Bank Finances 00:49:25 - What Anchors the Price Level 00:55:22 - Outro
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Steve Kamin and Mark Sobel on the Outlook of Dollar Dominance
04/06/2026
Steve Kamin and Mark Sobel on the Outlook of Dollar Dominance
Steve Kamin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and was previously the director of the Division of International Finance at the Federal Reserve Board. Mark Sobel is the US chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum and is a veteran of the US Department of Treasury. Steve and Mark return to the show to discuss the status of dollar dominance, the future threats to dollar dominance, the role or lack thereof that stablecoins will play in dollar dominance, the new findings in the Treasury Foreign Exchange Report, the current state of tariffs, whether we are in a second China shock, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on March 5th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Steve Kamin on X: Follow Mark Sobel on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:26 - Termites Eating Away at Dollar Dominance 00:16:52 - Future Threats to Dollar Dominance 00:19:47 - Stablecoins and Dollar Dominance 00:33:40 - Treasury Foreign Exchange Report 00:44:28 - Tariff Policy 00:53:25 - Second China Shock? 01:00:38 - Outro
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Ruth Judson on Chasing Dollars Around the World
03/30/2026
Ruth Judson on Chasing Dollars Around the World
Ruth Judson is a monetary economist, economic historian, and veteran of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In Ruth’s first appearance on the show she discusses her career at the Fed, field trips tracking counterfeit dollars around the global, how we know how much currency is held overseas, why money doesn’t matter anymore, the problem with cashless societies, how to understand TIC data, the promise of dollar backed stablecoins, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on March 4th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:13 - Ruth at the Fed 00:08:09 - Currency 00:31:29 - Counterfeits 00:39:00 - TIC Data and Safe Assets 00:44:18 - Dollar-Based Stablecoins 00:49:55 - Outro
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Bill Nelson on the Future of the Fed’s Balance Sheet
03/23/2026
Bill Nelson on the Future of the Fed’s Balance Sheet
Bill Nelson is a chief research officer and chief economist at the Bank Policy Institute. In Bill’s 10th appearance on the show he discusses his infamous email list, the ratchet effect from QE, his congressional testimony, the BPI’s Bank Treasurers Survey, how he thinks the Fed should shrink the balance sheet, whether the Fed is profitable, and much more. Watch on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on March 3rd, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:00 - Quantitative Easing Ratchet Effect 00:16:31 - Bill’s Congressional Testimony 00:31:12 - BPI’s Bank Treasurers Survey 00:37:37 - How To Shrink the Balance Sheet 00:48:44 - The Fed’s Profits 00:54:50 - Outro
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Neha Narula, Anders Brownworth, and Daniel Aronoff on Understanding Stablecoins in the GENIUS Era
03/16/2026
Neha Narula, Anders Brownworth, and Daniel Aronoff on Understanding Stablecoins in the GENIUS Era
Subscribe to the new ! 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 for this week’s episode, now with links. Recorded on February 27th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Follow David Beckworth on X: Follow Neha Narula on X: Follow Anders Brownworth on X: Follow Daniel Aronoff on X: Follow the show on X: Check out our Macro Musings 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
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