Macro Musings with David Beckworth
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Hosted by David Beckworth of the Mercatus Center, Macro Musings is a podcast which pulls back the curtain on the important macroeconomic issues of the past, present, and future.
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Tom Graff on the July FOMC Meeting and the Recession Debate
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
08/01/22 • 49 min
Tom Graff is the head of investments for Facet Wealth and has several decades leading fixed income departments. Tom joins David on Macro Musings to provide his thoughts on the recent FOMC meeting, the Q2 2022 GDP numbers and their implications for the economy, and the future path of Fed policy. Specifically, David and Tom discuss the recent GDP numbers from Q2 2022, the merits of public concerns over a recession, takeaways from the July FOMC meeting, interest rate theory and implicit forecasts of inflation, the fiscal theory of the price level, the continued importance of the Fed’s framework, and much more.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
Tom’s Twitter: @tdgraff
Tom’s Facet Wealth profile
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Follow us on Twitter: @Macro_Musings
Click here for the latest Macro Musings episodes sent straight to your inbox!
Related Links:
Real GDP Numbers updated for Q2 2022
Federal Open Market Committee: July 26-27, 2022 FOMC Meeting
1 Listener

Lev Menand on *The Fed Unbound: Central Banking in a Time of Crisis*
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
06/20/22 • 52 min
Lev Menand is an associate professor of law at Columbia University Law School and writes widely on legal issues surrounding the Federal Reserve. Lev rejoins Macro Musings to talk about his new book titled, *The Fed Unbound: Central Banking in a Time of Crisis.* Specifically, David and Lev discuss why the Fed can be considered unbound, the history of the Fed’s engagement with the shadow banking system, and Lev’s solutions for reform.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
Lev’s Twitter: @LevMenand
Lev’s Columbia Law profile
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Follow us on Twitter: @Macro_Musings
Click here for the latest Macro Musings episodes sent straight to your inbox!
Related Links:
*The Fed Unbound: Central Banking in a Time of Crisis* by Lev Menand
*Unappropriated Dollars: The Fed’s Ad Hoc Lending Facilities and the Rules That Govern Them* by Lev Menand
1 Listener

Macro Lit Review 1: Highlights from Mid-2022 with George Selgin
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
06/13/22 • 57 min
George Selgin is a senior fellow and director emeritus of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute. He is also the most frequent guest on Macro Musings, now appearing for his 12th time. In this episode, George and David identify and discuss their top three articles from the past few weeks related to macroeconomics and monetary policy. Specifically, George and Selgin discuss Lael Brainard’s recent speech defending the Fed’s prospects of issuing central bank digital currency, Janet Yellen’s concession about the path that inflation has taken, the governmental accounting of Federal Reserve losses and whether they amount to a net taxpayer burden, why the Dollar remains firm as the dominant currency in global markets, how an orthodox corridor system defaults into a floor system during times of crisis, and much more.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
George’s Twitter: @GeorgeSelgin
George’s Cato profile
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Follow us on Twitter: @Macro_Musings
Click here for the latest Macro Musings episodes sent straight to your inbox!
Related Links:
*No, Fed, Unrealized Losses are Real Losses for Taxpayers* by Bill Nelson
*Preparing for the Financial System of the Future* speech by Lael Brainard at the 2022 U.S. Monetary Policy Forum
*What if the Federal Reserve Books Losses Because of its Quantitative Easing?* by Willam B. English and Donald Kohn
*From Burns to Powell*, a Macro Musings podcast episode with Guest Donald Kohn and host David Beckworth
*Treasury Secretary Concedes She Was Wrong on 'Path That Inflation Would Take'* By Kevin Liptak and Paul LeBlanc
*How Monetary Policy Got Behind The Curve And How To Get Back: A Policy Conference* Hoover Institution, Stanford University
*Jack Dorsey is Wrong. The Dollar is Still a Global Reserve Currency* by Mark Copelovitch
*A Model of Credit, Money, Interest, and Prices* by Saki Bigio and Yuliy Sannikov
1 Listener

Kathy Jones on the Current Economic Slowdown, Quantitative Tightening, and the Fed’s New Framework
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
07/11/22 • 47 min
Kathy Jones is managing director and chief fixed income strategist for the Schwab Center for Financial Research, and she has spent many years on Wall Street, covering bond markets and foreign exchange. Kathy joins Macro Musings to talk about the present outlook for the economy, the state of markets, and Fed policy. Specifically, David and Kathy discuss the story behind the recent economic slowdown, why equity markets are behind the recessionary curve, Kathy’s sense on QT moving forward, and more.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
Kathy’s Twitter: @KathyJones
Kathy’s Charles Schwab profile
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Follow us on Twitter: @Macro_Musings
Click here for the latest Macro Musings episodes sent straight to your inbox!
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Joshua Younger on the Treasury Market: Structure, Stressors, and Potential Reforms
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
08/29/22 • 54 min
Josh Younger is currently a managing director and global head of ALM research and strategy at JP Morgan, and previously spent over a decade as a senior market strategist focused on interest rate and money markets. Josh joins David on Macro Musings to discuss the current state of the Treasury market and various reforms that have recently been proposed for it. Specifically, Josh and David discuss the history and evolving structure of the Treasury market, the emergence of high frequency trading firms over the past decade, the factors behind the 2020 dash for cash, current stresses on the Treasury market, as well as potential reforms for the market going forward.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Follow us on Twitter: @Macro_Musings
Click here for the latest Macro Musings episodes sent straight to your inbox!
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Joe Gagnon on *25 Years of Excess Unemployment* and the Phillips Curve Debate
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
12/12/22 • 53 min
Joe Gagnon is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and was formerly a senior staffer at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Joe is also a returning guest to the podcast, and he rejoins Macro Musings to take a look back on the past few years and to discuss his new paper on excess unemployment over the past 25 years. Specifically, David and Joe also discuss the movement of the natural rate of unemployment over time, alternative explanations for the flattening of the Phillips curve, policy implications for the Fed moving forward, and more.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
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Joe’s PIIE profile
Joe’s Twitter: @GagnonMacro
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Follow us on Twitter: @Macro_Musings
Click here for the latest Macro Musings episodes sent straight to your inbox!
Check out our new Macro Musings merch here!
Related Links:
*25 Years of Excess Unemployment in Advanced Economies: Lessons for Monetary Policy* by Joseph Gagnon and Madi Sarsenbayev
*Economists are Slightly Better at Predicting Inflation Than Consumers* by Joseph Gagnon and Madi Sarsenbayev
*Who are the Better Forecasters of Inflation, Bond Traders or Economists?* by Joseph Gagnon and Madi Sarsenbayev
*The Slope of the Phillips Curve: Evidence form U.S. States* by Jonathon Hazell, Juan Herreno, Emi Nakamura, and Jon Steinsson
*The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation* by George Akerlof, William Dickens, and George Perry
*Measuring Monetary Policy: the NGDP Gap* by David Beckworth
1 Listener

Bill Nelson on How the Fed Fell Behind the Curve
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
05/23/22 • 59 min
Bill Nelson is the Chief Economist and an Executive Vice President at the Bank Policy Institute. Bill previously was a deputy director at the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board where his responsibilities included monetary policy analysis, discount window policy analysis, and financial institution supervision. He also worked closely with the BIS on the design of liquidity regulation. Bill joins David on Macro Musings to discuss the Fed's balance sheet, its reduction plans and how the Fed fell behind the curve. Specifically, David and Bill get into whether the Fed regretted its premature tightening period from 2015 to 2018, how the Fed’s focus on the baseline outlook left it not resilient to alternative developments, how concerns over another taper tantrum impacted the Fed’s decision-making, the Fed’s handling of its FAIT framework, and much more.
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Transcript for the episode can be found here.
Bill’s Bank Policy Institute profile: https://bpi.com/people/bill-nelson/
Bill’s American Banker archive: https://www.americanbanker.com/author/william-nelson-ab3618
Related Links:
“Plane Crashes and Falling Behind the Curve” by Bill Nelson
“Guest post: A former Fed insider explains the internal debate over QE3” by Bill Nelson
https://www.ft.com/content/254befb7-10f8-3f2c-a9a8-bc6226a6f1db
"The Potential Ineffectiveness of Policy at the Zero Bound" (Memo to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors) by Bill Nelson and Brian Sack
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fv21og7vpx1izml/BillNelsonMemo.pdf?dl=0
“Interpreting the Significance of the Lagged Interest Rate in Estimated Monetary Policy Rules” by William B. English, William R. Nelson, and Brian P. Sack
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=314425
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
David’s blog: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/
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Christine McDaniel on the Russia Sanctions and Their Impact on Globalization and the Russian Economy
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
06/06/22 • 50 min
Christine McDaniel is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center where she focuses on trade and intellectual property rights issues. Christine previously held several positions in the US government, including deputy assistant secretary at the Treasury Department and senior trade economist in the White House Council of Economic Advisors. She has also worked in the economic offices of the US Department of Commerce, US Trade Representative, and the US International Trade Commission. Christine rejoins Macro Musings to talk about the economic sanctions applied to Russia, and their implication for the Russian economy and globalization more generally. Specifically, David and Christine also discuss the structure and effectiveness of the Russia sanctions, the war’s heavy impact on food shortages, the role of dollar dominance in geopolitics, and more.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
Christine’s Twitter: @christinemcdan
Christine’s Mercatus profile: https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/christine-mcdaniel
Related Links:
*We’ve Never Seen a Country Go Backwards as Quickly as Russia* by Christine McDaniel
*Estimating the Economic Effects of Sanctions on Russia: An Allied Trade Embargo* by Kornel Mahlstein, Christine McDaniel, Simon Schropp, and Marinos Tsigas
https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/74493/RSC_WP_2022_36.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
*Potential Economic Effects of Sanctions on Russia: An Allied Trade Embargo* by Kornel Mahlstein, Christine McDaniel, Simon Schropp, and Marinos Tsigas
https://voxeu.org/article/potential-economic-effects-allied-trade-embargo-russia
*US Sanctions Reinforce the Dollar’s Dominance* by Michael P. Dooley, David Folkerts-Landau, and Peter M. Garber
David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
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Will Diamond on Safe Assets, Risk-Free Rates, and Convenience Yields and their Implications for Policy
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
02/21/22 • 65 min
William Diamond is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Will joins David on Macro Musings to discuss safe assets, convenience yields, bubbles and public debt and the implications for policy. Specifically, David and Will get into competing theories of interest rates and the rise of New Keynesian thinking, the role of the dollar in the global financial system, the drivers behind the growth in US debt, how the construction of risk-free interest rates unaffected by convenience yields on safe assets can improve our understanding of the financial system in times of stress, and much more.
Check out Ideas of India: https://www.discoursemagazine.com/tag/ideas-of-india-podcast/, and subscribe to Ideas of India on your favorite podcast app.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
Will’s Twitter: @wdiamond_econ
Will’s Wharton profile: https://fnce.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/diamondw/#research
Related Links:
*Threats to Central Bank Independence: High-Frequency Identification with Twitter* by Francesco Bianchi, Thilo Kind & Howard Kung
https://www.nber.org/papers/w26308
*Safety Transformation and the Structure of the Financial System* by Will Diamond
https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/modelwriteupnew23.pdf
*From World Banker to World Venture Capitalist: The US External Adjustment and the Exorbitant Privilege* by Helene Ray and P.O. Gourinchas
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=788428
*Rational Bubbles and Public Debt Policy: A Quantitative Analysis* by David Domeij and Tore Ellingsen
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304393218301909
*Liquidity Premiums on Government Debt and the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level* by Aleksander Berentsen and Christopher J. Waller
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2943241
*Risk Free Interest Rates* by Jules H. van Binsbergen, Will Diamond, and Marco Grotteria
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3242836
*Risk-Free Rates and Convenience Yields Around the World* by Will Diamond, Peter Van Tassel
https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/newdraft_11132021formatfix.pdf
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
David’s blog: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/

Emily Hamilton on the Current State of the U.S. Housing Market and Solutions for Reform
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
02/28/22 • 58 min
Emily Hamilton is a senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Emily’s research focuses on urban economics and land use policy, and she joins Macro Musings to talk about housing in the United States. Specifically, David and Emily discuss many of the issues present within the American housing market, why we should care about rampant housing shortages, and the most effective avenues we can pursue for largescale reform.
Check out Conversations with Tyler: https://conversationswithtyler.com, and subscribe to Conversations with Tyler on your favorite podcast app.
Transcript for the episode can be found here.
Emily’s Twitter: @ebwhamilton
Emily’s Mercatus profile: https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/emily-hamilton
Related Links:
*Light Touch Density: A Series of Policy Briefs on Zoning, Land Use, and a Solution to Help Alleviate the Nation’s Housing Shortage* by Edward Pinto, Tobias Peter, and Emily Hamilton
*2019 Survey of Consumer Finances* by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm
David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
David’s blog: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/
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FAQ
How many episodes does Macro Musings with David Beckworth have?
Macro Musings with David Beckworth currently has 383 episodes available.
What topics does Macro Musings with David Beckworth cover?
The podcast is about Economics, Business and Education.
What is the most popular episode on Macro Musings with David Beckworth?
The episode title 'Tom Graff on the July FOMC Meeting and the Recession Debate' is the most popular with 1 listens and 1 ratings.
What is the average episode length on Macro Musings with David Beckworth?
The average episode length on Macro Musings with David Beckworth is 56 minutes.
How often are episodes of Macro Musings with David Beckworth released?
Episodes of Macro Musings with David Beckworth are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Macro Musings with David Beckworth?
The first episode of Macro Musings with David Beckworth was released on Mar 31, 2016.
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