Macro Musings with David Beckworth

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.
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Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on July 20th, 2026
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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

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 full length video on our new YouTube Channel!
Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on July 20th, 2026
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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

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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel!
Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on June 22nd, 2026
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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

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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel!
Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on May 11th, 2026
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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

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 the full length video on our new YouTube Channel!
Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.
Recorded on June 15th, 2026
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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