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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recorded live in front of the Wharton Financial Regulation Conference, former guest Peter Conti-Brown joins David Beckworth as a Macro Musings co-host on this week's episode. Peter and David discuss the inflection point of 2008 in FinReg scholarship, how Macro Musings has become just as much a show about financial regulation as about macro, what to make of the Trump administrations changes to bank supervision, whether we should be enthusiastic about the GENIUS Act and digital assets, the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the crisis that could become Claude Mythos, why networks and Substacks are becoming more important, 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 10th, 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

00:01:29 - History of Financial Regulation

00:04:23 - Monetary Policy vs. Financial Regulation

00:07:48 - Bank Supervision

00:11:59 - Digital Assets

00:22:48 - Claude Mythos and Banking

00:30:35 - The Market Argument for the Discount Window

00:35:44 - Academia vs. Real-World Impact

00:40:28 - Audience Q&A

00:54:16 - Outro