Rich Clarida was the vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and is currently a professor of economics at Columbia University and a managing director at PIMCO. Rich returns to the program to discuss whether we give the Fed too little credit for its soft landing, the problem of persistent inflation, how the Fed should respond to rapidly succeeding negative supply shocks, the case for nominal GDP, the state of the Fed's balance sheet, why a synthetic FOMC could help the real FOMC, and much more.

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Recorded on March 31st, 2026

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:03:59 - Persistent Inflation

00:11:14 - Inflation Expectations

00:18:34 - Responding to Negative Supply Shocks

00:29:38 - Nominal GDP

00:34:59 - Fed's Balance Sheet

00:45:20 - Synthetic FOMCs

00:51:36 - Outro

Kris Mitchener is a professor of economics at Santa Clara University and is an economic and monetary historian. In Kris's first appearance on the show, he discusses how he fell in love with building data sets out of old dusty archives, the origins and fall of bimetallism, the pros and cons of the gold standard, the problem of operating losses on the Fed's balance sheet, what truly anchors the price level, 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 March 4th, 2026

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:33 - Kris' Career Path

00:06:32 - What Is Bimetallism?

00:14:41 - The Gold Standard

00:28:55 - Disinflation Policies and Central Bank Finances

00:49:25 - What Anchors the Price Level

00:55:22 - Outro

Steve Kamin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and was previously the director of the Division of International Finance at the Federal Reserve Board. Mark Sobel is the US chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum and is a veteran of the US Department of Treasury. Steve and Mark return to the show to discuss the status of dollar dominance, the future threats to dollar dominance, the role or lack thereof that stablecoins will play in dollar dominance, the new findings in the Treasury Foreign Exchange Report, the current state of tariffs, whether we are in a second China shock, 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 March 5th, 2026

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Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:26 - Termites Eating Away at Dollar Dominance

00:16:52 - Future Threats to Dollar Dominance

00:19:47 - Stablecoins and Dollar Dominance

00:33:40 - Treasury Foreign Exchange Report

00:44:28 - Tariff Policy

00:53:25 - Second China Shock?

01:00:38 - Outro