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  transcript  for this week's episode, now with links...

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  tra...

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 w...

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 o...

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 foreig...

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 m...

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...

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 histo...

Lukasz Rachel is a former Bank of England economist and currently is an assistant professor of economics at the University College of London. In Lukasz's first appearance on the show he discusses his big career breaks, the implications of secular stagnation in the industrialized world, what is next for R-star, what non-Ricardian macro policy looks like, his policy prescriptions for the US, and muc...

Tara Sinclair is a professor and chair of the economics department at George Washington University. Tara returns to the show to discuss her ambitious paper simulating an FOMC meeting before it happens with LLM models, the process of building sim FOMC members, the importance of publicly funding economic data, the future of AI and macroeconomics, and much more. Check out the  transcript  for this we...

Bryan Cutsinger is a monetary historian and an assistant professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University. Bryan returns to the show to discuss how we think about deflation, the history of growth driven deflation, the connection between the postbellum period and today, the potential of rapid productivity growth from AI, and much more. Check out the  transcript  for this week's episode, now wi...

Will Roberds is an economist emeritus of the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Steve Quinn is a professor of economics at Texas Christian University. In Will and Steve's first appearance on the show they discuss the historical significance of the Bank of Amsterdam, The use of ledger at the Bank of Amsterdam, It's use of repo and open market operations, it's connection to...

Jim Clouse is a veteran of the Federal Reserve System and is currently a fellow at the Andersen Institute. In Jim's first appearance on the show, he discusses the evolution of monetary rules at the Fed, what happened at the Fed during Y2K, 9/11, the Great Financial Crisis, and the COVID Pandemic, the ever changing stigma of the discount window, Ted Cruz's calls to end interest on reserves, and muc...

Manmohan Singh is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Financial Markets Infrastructure. Manmohan returns to the show to discuss whether money still matters, the impacts of the GENIUS ACT, the lobbying show down over stablecoins in the US, stablecoins impact on the Eurodollar market, and much more. Check out the  transcript  for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on September 10th, 202...

Raphael Bostic is the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In President Bostic's first appearance on the show, he discusses his love of birding, what that teaches him about central banking, the unique role of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, switching for FIT to FAIT back to FIT, what to do about inflation, the importance of globalization, rising fiscal...

Jon Hartley is a macroeconomist and affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jon returns to the show to discuss the most recent Hoover Monetary Conference, the legacy of John Taylor, why central banks should be using his new measure of r-star, the status of debt management at the US Treasury, and much more. Check out the  transcript  for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on August 26...

Marc Giannoni is a managing director and the chief US economist at Barclays Capital. In Marc's first appearance on the show he discusses working on the 2020 Fed Framework Review, the troubling issues of Fed independence and fiscal dominance, the future of long rates and r-star, his influential 2006 paper about what good monetary policy looks like, and much more. Check out the  transcript  for this...

Samim Ghamami is former SEC economist. Samim returns to the show to discuss the fiscal trajectory of the US, the outlook of interest rates, the US Treasury market's impact on inflation, potential reforms to the Treasury market and much more. Check out the  transcript  for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on August 5th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack:  Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Fo...

Jerry Dwyer is a professor emeritus of economics at Clemson, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and is currently a senior fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. In Jerry's first appearance on the show, he discusses what it was like having Milton Friedman as a mentor, the history of free banking, the status of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, and much more. Check out the  t...

Hester Peirce is a current commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission and serves on its crypto task force. Hester returns to the show to discuss her time and role at the SEC, the SEC evolving role in the regulation landscape, the problems with our current state of the financial surveillance, the state of crypto for a regulator's perspective, and much more. Check out the  transcript  fo...

Robin 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...

Aditi Sahasrabuddhe is a political scientist at Brown University and the author of the new book, Banker's Trust: How Social Relations Avert Global Financial Collapse. In Aditi's first appearance on the show, she discusses how central bankers' relationships in the 1920's impacted the global economy, how the ending of those relationships played a part in the Great Depression, how we can apply those...

Will Luther is an associate professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University and a fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. Josh Hendrickson is a professor of economics and the chair of the economics department at the University of Mississippi. Josh is also a fellow at BPI. Will and Josh return to the show to defend the idea of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, discuss the future of Bitcoin, and co...

Rashad Ahmed is a former Treasury and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency financial economist and is currently an economist at the upstart Andresen Institute for Finance and Economics. In Rashad's first appearance on the show, he discusses the real-world impacts of the GENIUS Act, what US stablecoin regulation means for the rest of the world, the state of crypto adoption, and much more.   Ch...

Paul Kupiec is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In Paul's first appearance on the show, he discusses life at a think tank, the insolvency of the Fed, theories on how to fix the Fed's balance sheet, Ted Cruz's call to end interest on reserves, and much more.  Check out the  transcript  for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on June 24th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Sub...