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 Substacks are becoming more important, and much more.
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Recorded on April 10th, 2026
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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

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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel!
Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on March 27th, 2026
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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

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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel!
Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on March 31st, 2026
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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

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 transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on March 4th, 2026
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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

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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel!
Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on March 5th, 2026
Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus
Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth
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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