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Andrew Levin is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College and a former long-time Fed official. Andy is also a previous guest of Macro Musings and rejoins the podcast to talk about the costs and benefits of the Fed's QE4 program. David and Andy also discuss the Fed's recent record on inflation, QE4's impact on market functioning, the present and future of the Fed's balance sheet, and more. Transcript for the episode can be found here. Andrew's Dartmouth profile Andrew's NBER archive 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: *Quantifying the Costs and Benefits of Quantitative Easing* by Andrew Levin, Brian Lu, and William Nelson *Incorporating Scenario Analysis into the Federal Reserve's Policy Strategy and Communications* by Michael Bordo, Andrew Levin, and Mickey Levy *What if the Federal Reserve Books Losses Because of its Quantitative Easing?* by William English and Donald Kohn
Guest speakers include Patsy Yang, Lauren Meyers, Alex Pentland, Shafi Goldwasser, Kim Weeden, Joe Farrell, Diana Mutz, Barry Schwartz, Dean Adler, Michael Bordo, and Chris Arnade.
Jim Dorn is the Vice President for Monetary Studies at the Cato Institute and is the director of Cato’s annual Monetary Policy Conference. Jim has written widely on Federal Reserve policy and monetary reform, and has also edited more than 10 books including *The Search for Stable Money* and *The Future of Money in the Information Age*. He joins the show today to talk about the history of monetary policy in Washington D.C. over the past four decades as well as some of his own recent work. David and Jim also discuss the issues covered at the most recent Cato Institute monetary policy conference, the recent mystery of low inflation, and Jim’s idea of an optimal monetary policy regime. Transcript for the episode: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/podcasts/10022019/jim-dorn-history-monetary-policy-washington-dc-and-its-future Jim’s Cato Institute profile: https://www.cato.org/people/james-dorn Related Links: Registration for the Cato Institute Monetary Policy Conference: https://www.cato.org/events/37th-annual-monetary-conference *The Search for Stable Money: Essays on Monetary Reform* edited by James Dorn and Anna Schwartz https://www.amazon.com/Search-Stable-Money-Essays-Monetary/dp/0226158292 *The Future of Money in the Information Age* edited by James Dorn https://www.amazon.com/Future-Money-Information-Age/dp/1882577523 *the Political Economy of Inflation* by Fritz Machlup https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1983/5/cj3n1-3.pdf *Has Monetarism Failed?* by Karl Brunner https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/803d/c8632bec26142f4c6b54f9e692c6acf2fe72.pdf *Should the Fed Be Constrained?* by Jeffrey Frankel https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/springsummer-2019/should-fed-be-constrained *Improving the Monetary Regime: The Case for U.S. Digital Cash* by Michael Bordo and Andrew Levin https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/springsummer-2019/improving-monetary-regime-case-us-digital-cash David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Bryan Cutsinger is an economist affiliated with Angelo State as well as Texas Tech University and recently published an article titled *Seigniorage in the Civil War South*. He joins the show today to talk about this article, the monetary history of the Civil War, and the economics of Seigniorage. David and Bryan also discuss how both the North and the South financed the war and why the South made some counterintuitive decisions in how they conducted monetary policy. Transcript for the episode: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/podcasts/03292019/civil-war-and-economics-seigniorage Bryan’s website: https://www.bryancutsinger.com/ Bryan’s George Mason profile: https://economics.gmu.edu/people/bcutsing Related Links: *Seigniorage in the Civil War South* by Bryan Cutsinger and Joshua Ingber https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498318300470 *The Gold Standard as a Rule: An Essay in Exploration* by Michael Bordo and Finn Kydland https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498385710194 *Financial Failure and Confederate Defeat* by Douglas Ball https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Failure-Confederate-Defeat-Douglas/dp/0252017552 David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Rohan Grey is a legal scholar and the research director of the Digital Fiat Currency Institute. He joins the show today to make the case for digital legal tender. David and Rohan also discuss privacy issues related to digital currency, getting the public onboard with a digital currency proposal, modern monetary theory, and how it is different than mainstream economics. Transcript for the episode: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/podcasts/02112019/future-digital-fiat-currency Rohan’s Twitter: @rohangrey Rohan’s Cornell profile: https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/admissions/degrees/graduate-legal-studies/JSD-Student-Profiles-Rohan-Grey.cfm Related Links: *Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy* by Michael Bordo and Andrew Levin https://www.nber.org/papers/w23711 *Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency* by Christine Lagarde https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/11/13/sp111418-winds-of-change-the-case-for-new-digital-currency *The Case for Digital Legal Tender: The Macroeconomic Policy Implications of Digital Fiat Currency* by Rohan Grey and Jonathan Dharmapalan https://www.ecurrency.net/static/resources/201802/TheMacroeconomicImplicationsOfDigitalFiatCurrencyEVersion.pdf *Banking in a Digital Fiat Currency Regime* by Rohan Grey https://custom.cvent.com/20310C03166C4C11B1AA63B0D6300264/files/Event/6230e8320cad4d97a45b8dcdc6c44200/aaeeabdc5cee41f5a8ad0a7e869faed8.pdf *Mobile Finance in Developing Countries: Macroeconomic Implications and Potential* by Rohan Grey http://www.binzagr-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WP-116.pdf David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth
Ten years after the crisis: Regulate, yes, but how much? Economic historian Michael Bordo reflects on the state of play 10 years after the Lehman Brothers failure and warns against the temptation to over-regulate. For more information go to: http://www.oecd.org/economy/ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics
Michael D. Bordo is a professor of economics and the director of the Center for Monetary and Financial History at Rutgers University, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has also been a visiting scholar at numerous central banks across the world. Michael, a prolific scholar, joins the show to discuss a long career in monetary economics, including his research with the legendary Anna Schwartz. He shares his thoughts on the Great Recession and how it compares with the Great Depression. Additionally, he challenges the notion that financial crises like the 2007-2009 crisis are necessarily followed by slow recoveries. David and Michael also chat about the history of American banking law and how restrictions on interstate-branch banking until the 1990s hindered economic growth. Finally, Michael gives some advice about how to be a successful monetary historian! David’s blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com Michael Bordo’s homepage: https://sites.google.com/site/michaelbordo/ David’s Twitter: @davidbeckworth Related links: Michael Bordo in The Wall Street Journal: “Financial Recessions Don’t Lead to Weak Recessions” http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444506004577613122591922992 “A Lesson from the Great Depression that the Fed Might have Learned: A Comparison of the 1932 Open Market Purchases with Quantitative Easing” http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/files/S01_P1_Arunima-Sinha.pdf “A Fiscal Union for the Euro: Some Lessons from History” http://www.nber.org/papers/w17380 “Under What Circumstances can Inflation be a Solution to Excessive National Debt: Some Lessons from History” http://docplayer.net/6583440-Under-what-circumstances-can-inflation-be-a-solution-to-excessive-national-debt-some-lessons-from-history.html