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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel! ...
Jun 15, 2026•59 min•Ep. 547
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 ...
Jun 08, 2026•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 546
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...
Jun 01, 2026•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 545
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...
May 25, 2026•56 min•Ep. 544
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 im...
May 18, 2026•53 min•Ep. 543
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...
May 11, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 542
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 id...
May 04, 2026•55 min•Ep. 541
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. Watc...
Apr 27, 2026•56 min•Ep. 540
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 ...
Apr 20, 2026•52 min•Ep. 539
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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the transc...
Apr 13, 2026•56 min•Ep. 538
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, ...
Apr 06, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 537
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 the full length video on our new YouTube C...
Mar 30, 2026•51 min•Ep. 536
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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on March 3r...
Mar 23, 2026•56 min•Ep. 535
Subscribe to the new Macro Musings YouTube Channel ! 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 plum...
Mar 16, 2026•57 min•Ep. 534
Subscribe to the new Macro Musings YouTube Channel ! Jesús Fernández-Villaverde is a professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Jesús returns to the show to discuss his rise on X, how to frame global demographic decline, the three accelerants of demographic decline, the role of housing in family size, how AI will play a role in global demographics, what we know about AGI, the question of dollar dominance, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with li...
Mar 09, 2026•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 533
Subscribe to the new Macro Musings YouTube Channel ! Chris Meissner is a professor of economics at University of California at Davis and is the author of the recent book One from the Many: The Global Economy Since 1850 . In Chris's first appearance on the podcast he discusses the historical bend towards greater globalization, how we should really define the global economy, the impact of the Great Financial Crisis on globalization and populism, the scope of globalization from the 1820's to today,...
Mar 02, 2026•1 hr•Ep. 532
Subscribe to the new Macro Musings YouTube Channel ! 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 ratche...
Feb 23, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 531
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on January 13th, 2025 Subscribe t...
Feb 16, 2026•56 min•Ep. 530
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on January 13th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy ...
Feb 09, 2026•57 min•Ep. 529
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on January 15th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexu...
Feb 02, 2026•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 528
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on January 8th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David ...
Jan 26, 2026•56 min•Ep. 527
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on January 7th, 2025 Subscribe to David's ...
Jan 19, 2026•59 min•Ep. 526
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on December 11th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow Dav...
Jan 12, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 525
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on December 12th, 2025 Subscribe to David's...
Jan 05, 2026•59 min•Ep. 524
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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on December 10th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus F...
Dec 29, 2025•56 min•Ep. 523
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 U...
Dec 22, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 522
Martha Gimbel is the executive director and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale. In Martha's first appearance on the show, she discusses the missing BLS job market data, the consequences of losing two months of labor market data, the impact of AI on the labor market in the short and long term, why it is hard to determine which job sectors AI will impact first, why people will keep learning foreign languages, the future impact tariffs will have on the economy, why US treasuries might get left fo...
Dec 15, 2025•56 min•Ep. 521
Laurence Bristow is a former staffer at the Reserve Bank of Australia and currently is a Vice President and Research Associate at the Bank Policy Institute. In Laurence's first appearance on the show, he discusses the differences between the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Fed, The RBA's change in operating systems, what a demand driven system actually looks like, the motivation for the RBA to make this change, calls for changes to the operating system within the Fed, and much more. Check out ...
Dec 08, 2025•53 min•Ep. 520
Austin Campbell runs Zero Knowledge Group, a consulting and advising firm in the digital assets space and is an adjunct professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. In Austin's first appearance on the show, he discusses what comes next after the GENIUS Act, the debate with interest-on-reserves when it comes to stablecoins, the future of Tether, Governor Waller's proposal of skinny master accounts, the larger macro implications of stablecoins in Europe and the global South, and mu...
Dec 01, 2025•59 min•Ep. 519
Mike Bird is the Wall Street editor for The Economist magazine and is the author of The Land Trap: A New History of the World's Oldest Asset . Mike returns to the show to discuss the conclusion of Abenomics, the origins of land as an asset, the surge in housing prices during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the unsuspecting story of Wolf Ladejinsky, how housing impacted Japan's lost decade, the modern history of land in China, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links...
Nov 24, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 518
