Macro Musings with David Beckworth

4.8 (374)
Business
Updated Weekly

Hosted by David Beckworth of the Mercatus Center, Macro Musings pulls back the curtain on the important macroeconomic issues of the past, present, and future.

12h ago

Yesha Yadav, Chris Odinet, and Andrea Tosato on the Moneyness of Stablecoins

Yesha Yadav is a professor of law, the Milton R. Underwood Chair, the Associate Dean & Robert Belton Director of Culture & Community, and the Co-Faculty Director, Master of Laws (LL.M) Program at the Vanderbilt University Law School. Chris Odinet is a professor of law, Mosbacher Research Fellow, and Affiliate Professor of Finance at Texas A&M University School of Law. Andrea Tosato is professor of law at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. Yesha, Chris, and Andrea join the show to discuss their avenues into stablecoin regulation, their four-part definition of moneyness (nature of the claim, safety, discharge capacity, and negotiability), how Tether and Circle stack up to these definitions, the stablecoin bankruptcy conundrum, the progress the GENIUS Act made on closing legal loopholes, their prescriptions for policymakers, 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 20th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Chris on X: @ChisOdinet Follow Andrea on X: @Andrea_Tosato Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:26 - Career Backgrounds of Chris, Yesha, and Andrea 00:02:35 - Background on the Paper 00:06:52 - Structure of Money 00:17:33 - Moneyness: Nature of the Claim 00:22:37 - Moneyness: Safety 00:23:45 - Moneyness: Discharge Capacity 00:30:50 - Moneyness: Negotiability 00:31:55 - How Stablecoins Currently Hold Up in Moneyness 00:58:18 - Recommendations to Policymakers 01:10:51 - Outro

1h 12m
Jun 22

Jeffrey Lacker on What a New Fed Treasury Accord Might Look Like

Jeffrey Lacker is the former president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank and is a senior affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jeff returns to the show to discuss the history of the Fed Treasury Accord, the state of fiscal dominance, his five proposals for a new Fed Treasury Accord, his calls for reform around the discount window, a memorial to his friend and colleague Charlie Plosser, 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 20th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:56 - Fed Treasury Accord 00:18:26 - Fiscal Dominance 00:22:05 - Jeff's Five Proposals 00:49:05 - Charlie Plosser 00:55:49 - Outro

57 min
Jun 15

Nik Bhatia on Bitcoin and the Case for Using Stablecoins for Statecraft

Nik Bhatia is an author of two economics books, a visiting fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and the founder of The Bitcoin Layer. In Nik's first appearance on the podcast, he discusses his niche in the Bitcoin community, the role of Bitcoin as a transaction asset, the threat or lack thereof of quantum computing on Bitcoin, his issues with the current eurodollar market, his new proposal to use stablecoins as statecraft, 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 5th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Nik X: @Timevalueofbtc Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:49 - Nik's Career and Background 00:12:32 - Crypto Assets for Transactions 00:18:28 - Quantum Computing and Bitcoin 00:24:08 - Stablecoins as Statecraft 00:58:36 - Outro

59 min
Jun 8

Bryan Cutsinger, Peter Ireland, and Will Luther on Lessons Learned from the Fed Framework Review

Bryan Cutsinger is an assistant professor of economics at the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University. Peter Ireland is a professor of Economics at Boston College. Will Luther is an associate professor of economics at the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University and is the director of the American Institute for Economic Research's Sound Money Project. Bryan, Peter, and Will return to the show to discuss the big takeaways from the 2025 Fed framework review, the flip flopping of FIT to FAIT back to FIT, the biggest lessons from the 2020 Fed framework review, the case for NGDP targeting at the Fed, hope for future reviews, 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 6th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Bryan X: @BryanPCutsinger Follow Peter X: @PIrelandecon Follow Will X: @WilliamJLuther Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:51 - Origins of Bryan, Will, and Peter's Paper 00:03:40 - Big Takeaways 00:06:14 - The Fed's 2020 Framework Review 00:12:43 - Lessons Learned from 2020 Review 00:14:38 - Nominal GDP Targeting and Productivity Shocks 00:26:59 - Reviewing the Fed's 2025 Framework Review 00:57:20 - Hopes for the Future 01:03:06 - Outro

1h 4m
Jun 1

Brendan Greeley on the 500 Year History of the Dollar

Brendan Greeley is a veteran journalist from the Financial Times and current PhD student at Princeton studying monetary history. In Brendan's first appearance on the show, he discusses why he went for a PhD after being a journalist for 20 years, why the dollar's history goes far beyond America's founding, when America actually achieved a currency union, the untold origins of the dollar, how Herbert and Lou Hoover's date nights played a role in the history of the dollar, the crucial importance of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz in understanding the dollar's history, the happy accident of Eurodollars, what the future of dollars looks like, 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 4th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Brendan X: @BHGreeley Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:12 - Brendan's Career 00:06:27 - How Old Is the Dollar? 00:25:24 - Where Did the Dollar Start? 00:38:11 - The Modern Dollar 00:57:08 - Future of the Dollar 01:01:59 - Outro

1h 3m
May 25

David Zaring on Skinny Charters and the Future of Banking

David Zaring is legal scholar and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In David's first appearance on the show, he discusses the role the Great Financial Crisis played in FinReg scholarship, how he came up with the term "skinny" in the new skinny Fed master accounts, the tumultuous road of Custodia vs. the Fed, a reimagined way to look at federal bank charters, whether commerce and banking are actually still separate, Fed independence and how it functions in a more corporatist model, 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 April 24th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow David Zaring X: @ZaringDavid Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:04 - The Great Financial Crisis and FinReg Scholarship 00:04:58 - David's Experience with Fintech Charter Litigation 00:17:18 - Skinny Charters 00:37:16 - How to Govern the Fed 00:55:10 - Outro

56 min
May 18

Bill Beach on the Future of United States' Economic Statistics and Fiscal Position

Bill Beach is the former commissioner of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the current executive director of the Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill. In Bill's first appearance on the show he discusses a career in and around public service, the important niche his new organization fills, the frightening fiscal outlook of the United States, exactly how long we have before Social Security runs out, why he believes it will take lots of small changes instead of a big one to fix our fiscal outlook, the important role of the BLS, why our statistical methods needs reform, the most underrated economic statistical indicators, 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 April 15th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Bill Beach X: @BeachWW453 Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:25 - Bill's Career 00:10:11 - Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill 00:17:23 - Fiscal Challenges of the United States 00:30:05 - Surveys from Bureau of Labor Statistics 00:43:12 - Challenges to Survey Work 00:52:13 - Outro

53 min
May 11

Tyler Goodspeed on Challenging the Way Economists Look at Recessions

Tyler Goodspeed is the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors and is currently a chief economist in the private sector. In Tyler's first appearance on the podcast he discusses his new book highlighting a different way of looking at recessions, the challenge of breaking away from the human inclination of ascribing patterns to random phenomena, whether recessions are more Dorian Gray or Peter Pan, what history and stories like Jay Cooke tell us about recessions, how to evaluate supply side shocks and the 2008 Financial Crisis, why Milton Friedman's Plucking model might be the best we have at modeling recessions, 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 April 15th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:43 - Recessions 00:07:07 - Epiphanies or Apophanies 00:26:40 - Peter Pan vs. Dorian Gray 00:33:40 - Jay Cooke and the Railroad 00:39:00 - Models of Recessions 00:47:55 - Supply Shocks 00:50:12 - Recessions in Different Places 01:00:25 - Outro

1h 1m

See All (556)

4.8

out of 5

374 Ratings

Lyman Stone

Apr 3

GMac1776

Great show
Horwitz - Monetary Disequilibrium

Mar 26

FFSanchez

Very informative and insightful. Thanks!
The best

07/29/2025

DB drooper

The consistently best economics podcast. Full length, highly knowledgeable, and they go into great detail on subjects that are hard to come by with pretty honest takes. Greatly appreciated.
Great

02/26/2025

cover the ears

Just came across this podcast in the past year. Really wish I’d known about it sooner. Intelligent and not overly political or dogmatic while covering topics not found elsewhere.

Hosted by David Beckworth of the Mercatus Center, Macro Musings pulls back the curtain on the important macroeconomic issues of the past, present, and future.