Macro Musings with David Beckworth

Colby Smith, Steven Kelly, and Gerard DiPippo discuss the major surprises and underreported stories of 2023. They also talk about the challenges in predicting economic trends and the consequences of war on the defense industry. Additionally, they explore geopolitical risks, the cost of large central bank balance sheets, and the Fed's framework review.

Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University and co-author of the popular economics blog, Marginal Revolution, joins the podcast to discuss who should be considered the greatest economist of all time. They also assign awards to the best macroeconomic theories, explore recent deflationary trends, and discuss the Fed's framework.

Nicolas Cachanosky talks about dollarization in Argentina, including its potential and requirements. They discuss Argentina's hyperinflationary experience, the three necessary steps for dollarization, and the differences between dollarization and currency boards.

Charles Evans, former president and CEO of the Chicago Fed, discusses his work on US monetary policy. Topics include the creation of the Evans rule, the current path of R-Star, and the future of the Fed's framework. They also explore the importance of the explicit 2% inflation target and propose nominal GDP targeting as a solution for supply-side driven inflation.

Matteo Maggiori and Jesse Schreger, along with David Beckworth, discuss geoeconomics and its policy implications. They explore the basics and core concepts of geoeconomics, the key elements of a global hegemon, and real world examples. They also discuss China's influence on the entertainment industry, debt repayment, US financial sanctions, and the future of geoeconomics research and policy agenda.

Matthew Raskin, US head of rates research at Deutsche Bank and former senior staff member of the Federal Reserve System, joins David on Macro Musings to talk about interest rates, QE, QT, and the Fed’s balance sheet. They also discuss improving liquidity and stability in the Treasury market, the challenges in the Treasury market, and potential changes to the Federal Reserve’s policy framework.

David Papell, Professor of economics at the University of Houston, discusses the origins and current applications of monetary policy rules. They explore the incorporation of new frameworks into the Taylor rule, the Federal Reserve's perspective on interest rates, the popularity of the Taylor rule, the influence of John Taylor, the importance of real-time data, different measures of the output gap, and inertial and non-inertial rules in monetary policy.

Rachel Siegel, a reporter for the Washington Post covering the Federal Reserve and domestic economy, discusses the Fed's handling of physical cash, the vulnerable state of the commercial real estate market, potential issues for voters in the 2024 election, and more.

Will Bateman, associate professor and associate dean of research at the Australian University College of Law, discusses his paper 'The Fiscal Fed' which examines the Fed's fiscal functions during major historical events. Topics include the Fed's role in war financing, the US dollar as a reserve currency, the history of yield curve control, and the possibility of turning the paper into a book.

PJ Glandon, associate professor of economics at Kenyon College, discusses the state of macroeconomics in terms of research and pedagogy. They talk about selecting journals for their study, the use of VARs and mathematics in macroeconomics, types of articles and data, analyzing citations, teaching macroeconomics at the undergraduate level, and the usefulness of the ISLM model in understanding the economy.