George Selgin on Fed Master Accounts, Central Bank Independence, and the Fed’s Balance Sheet

George Selgin is a senior fellow and director emeritus of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute. George is also a frequent guest of the podcast, and he rejoins Macro Musings to talk about some of the recent developments in the monetary and fiscal policy space. Specifically, David and George discuss recent updates regarding Fed master accounts, the problematic aspects of the Fed’s balance sheet, why a second Trump term would threaten central bank independence, and much more.

Transcript for this week’s episode.

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George’s Cato profile

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Related Links:

Caitlin Long’s tweet regarding the Fed’s special treatment for approving master accounts

*Public comments on the Proposed Guidelines for Evaluating Requests for Accounts and Services* by George Selgin

*Custodia Bank Inc v. Federal Reserve Board of Governors* Court documents from the Wyoming District Court

*Annual Report on Open Market Operations (2023)* by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

*Trump Allies Draw Up Plans to Blunt Fed’s Independence* by Andrew Restuccia, Nick Timiraos, and Alex Leary

*Trump Advisers Discuss Penalties for Nations That Move Away From the Dollar* by Saleha Mohsin, Jennfier Jacobs, and Nancy Cook

*Hayek versus Keynes on How the Price Level Ought to Behave* by George Selgin

*The Menace of Fiscal QE* by George Selgin

*George Selgin on False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery* by Macro Musings

Timestamps:

(00:01:36) – Intro

(00:06:26) – Updates on Fed Master Accounts and the Custodia Case

(00:17:57) – Problematic Aspects of the Fed’s Balance Sheet

(00:22:50) – The Importance of the Overnight Unsecured Interbank Lending Market

(00:34:26) – Responding to the Jared Bernstein Incident

(00:46:33) – Donald Trump, Central Bank Independence, and Dollar Dominance

(00:56:54) – Outro