84 - Nick Bloom on Economic Uncertainty and the Productivity Slowdown

Mark Carney served as the governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 until 2013, and as the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. Mark also was the chairman of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018. Mark is currently the Vice Chairman and Head of Impact Investing at Brookfield Asset Management, as well as a UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance. Mark joins David on Macro Musings to discuss his new book *Value(s): Building a Better World for All*, as well as his career in central banking. Specifically, they discuss Mark's experience at the Bank of Canada during the Great Recession, nominal GDP targeting and average inflation targeting as central bank frameworks, the future of central bank digital currencies, dollar dominance and the shadow banking system, the role of central banks and the financial sector in combating climate change, and much more. Transcript for the episode can be found here. Mark's Twitter: @MarkJCarney Mark's Brookfield profile: https://www.brookfield.com/about-us/leadership/mark-carney Related Links: *Value(s): Building A Better World For All* by Mark Carney https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/669023/values-by-mark-carney/9780771051555 *The Growing Challenges for Monetary Policy in the Current International Monetary and Financial System* by Mark Carney (speech given at Jackson Hole Symposium 2019) https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/speech/2019/the-growing-challenges-for-monetary-policy-speech-by-mark-carney.pdf David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

31 Maj 202154min

George Selgin is the director of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives and is a returning guest to the podcast. He rejoins Macro Musings to talk about the Fed's recent calls for comments on opening up Fed accounts to fintechs and other non-bank financial firms. George and David also discuss monetary plumbing issues, the state of fiscal QE, and more. Transcript for the episode can be found here. George's Twitter: @GeorgeSelgin George's Cato Institute profile: https://www.cato.org/people/george-selgin Related Links: *Keeping Fintech's Promise: A Modest Proposal* by George Selgin https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/552614-keeping-fintechs-promise-a-modest-proposal *Central Bank Digital Currency as a Potential Source of Financial Instability* by George Selgin https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/spring/summer-2021/central-bank-digital-currency-potential-source-financial-instability *Federal Reserve Board Invites Public Comment on Proposed Guidelines to Evaluate Requests for Accounts and Payment Services at Federal Reserve Banks* by the Fed https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/bcreg20210505a.htm *Aaron Klein on Real-time Payments and Financial Regulation* https://macromusings.libsyn.com/aaron-klein-on-real-time-payments-and-financial-regulation David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

24 Maj 202155min

Adam Posen is the President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Previously, Adam was on the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England. He has also worked at the New York Fed and has advised many central banks and governments. Adam is also a returning guest to the podcast and re-joins Macro Musings to discuss his new article, "The Price of Nostalgia: America's Self-Defeating Economic Retreat." Specifically, David and Adam discuss the Fed's new framework, secular stagnation, the economic impact of demographic changes, the China shock, and how the new political consensus on trade, growth, and the American middle class is short-sighted and self-defeating. Transcript for the episode can be found here. Adam's Twitter: @AdamPosen Adam's PIIE profile: https://www.piie.com/experts/senior-research-staff/adam-s-posen Related Links: *The Price of Nostalgia: America's Self-Defeating Economic Retreat* by Adam Posen https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-04-20/america-price-nostalgia *Hysteresis and the Business Cycle* by Valerie Cerra, Antonio Fatás, and Sweta Saxena https://faculty.insead.edu/fatas/hysteresis.pdf *The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States* by David H. Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon H. Hanson https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.103.6.2121 David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

17 Maj 202155min

Judge Glock is an economic historian, a scholar at the Cicero Institute, and a returning guest to the podcast. Judge rejoins Macro Musings to talk about the origins of the US mortgage market as detailed in his new book, *The Dead Pledge: The Origins of the Mortgage Market and Federal Bailouts, 1913-1939*. David and Judge also discuss the emergence and evolution of the national US mortgage market, the price parity movement, the history of federal land banks, and more. Transcript for the episode can be found here. Judge's Twitter: @judgeglock Judge's blog: https://judgeglock.medium.com/ Related Links: *The Dead Pledge: The Origins of the Mortgage Market and Federal Bailouts, 1913-1939* by Judge Glock https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-dead-pledge/9780231192538 *The "Riefler-Keynes" Doctrine and Federal Reserve Policy in the Great Depression* by Judge Glock https://read.dukeupress.edu/hope/article-abstract/51/2/297/137129/The-Riefler-Keynes-Doctrine-and-Federal-Reserve?redirectedFrom=fulltext *Housing Finance at a Glance* by the Urban Institute https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/housing-finance-policy-center/projects/housing-finance-glance-monthly-chartbooks David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

10 Maj 20211h 1min

Christina Parajon Skinner is a legal scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, and formerly was a legal counsel to the Bank of England. Christina joins David on Macro Musings to discuss her work on central bank activism. Specifically, David and Christina discuss comparisons between the Fed and the Bank of England, tensions between central bank independence and executive override, contemporary examples of central bank activism, and much more. Transcript for the episode can be found here. Christina's Twitter: @CParaSkinner Christina's Wharton profile: https://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/skinnerc/ Related Links: *Executive Override of Central Banks: A Comparison of the Legal Frameworks in the United States and the United Kingdom* by Michael Salib & Christina Parajon Skinner https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/in-print/volume-108-issue-4-april-2020/executive-override-of-central-banks-a-comparison-of-the-legal-frameworks-in-the-united-states-and-the-united-kingdom/ *Menace of Fiscal QE* by George Selgin https://www.cato.org/books/menace-fiscal-qe *Central Bank Activism* by Christina Parajon Skinner https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3817123 David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

3 Maj 202155min

Robert McCauley is a Senior Fellow at the Global Policy Center at Boston University and a Senior Research Associate of the Global History of Capitalism project at the Oxford Center for Global History. Robert also worked at the Bank for International Settlements for 25 years and the New York Federal Reserve Bank for 14 years, and he joins Macro Musings to discuss questions surrounding the global domain of the dollar. Specifically, Robert and David talk about how the US currency rose to prominence internationally in the 1950s, the size and influence of the global dollar zone, dilemmas imposed by dollar demand worldwide, and more. Transcript for the episode can be found here. Robert's Boston University profile: https://www.bu.edu/gdp/profile/robert-mccauley/ Robert's BIS archive: https://www.bis.org/author/robert_n_mccauley.htm Related Links: *The Global Domain of the Dollar: Eight Questions* by Robert McCauley https://www.bu.edu/gdp/files/2021/02/McCauley2021_Article_TheGlobalDomainOfTheDollarEigh.pdf David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

26 Apr 202159min

Antonio Fatás is a professor of economics at INSEAD, an international business school with campuses in Singapore, France, and Abu Dhabi. Antonio joins David on Macro Musings to talk about hysteresis and the business cycle. Specifically, David and Antonio discuss the history of the academic literature on business cycle and trend, the impact of the Kydland and Prescott model, and how endogenous growth models play into hysteresis. Support Macro Musings and get a free NGDP targeting mug: https://donate.mercatus.org/mug/?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=hyperlink&utm_campaign=mug Transcript for the episode can be found here. Antonio's INSEAD profile: https://faculty.insead.edu/fatas/ Antonio's Twitter: @AntonioFatas Related Links: *Hysteresis and the Business Cycle* by Valerie Cerra, Antonio Fatás, and Sweta Saxena https://faculty.insead.edu/fatas/hysteresis.pdf *Time to build and aggregate fluctuations* by F.E. Kydland and E.C. Prescott https://www.jstor.org/stable/1913386?seq=1 *The Dynamic Effects of Aggregate Demand and Supply Disturbances* by Olivier Jean Blanchard and Danny Quah https://www.jstor.org/stable/1827924?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1 David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

19 Apr 202156min

Matteo Maggiori is an associate professor of economics at Stanford University and joins David on Macro Musings to talk about global capital flows, reserve currencies, and the international monetary system. Specifically, David and Matteo also discuss the details of the Global Capital Allocation Project, the US and its status as banker to the world, the possibility we could see a major run on the dollar in the near future, and more. Support Macro Musings and get a free mug: https://donate.mercatus.org/mug/?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=hyperlink&utm_campaign=mug Transcript for the episode can be found here. Matteo's Twitter: @m_maggiori Matteo's website: https://www.matteomaggiori.com/ Matteo's Stanford profile: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/matteo-maggiori Related Links: The Global Capital Allocation Project: https://www.globalcapitalallocation.com/ *The Rise of the Dollar and Fall of the Euro as International Currencies* by Matteo Maggiori, Brent Neiman, and Jesse Schreger https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/maggiori/files/mns_pandp.pdf *A Model of the International Monetary System* by Emmanuel Farhi and Matteo Maggiori https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/farhi/files/ims.pdf David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

12 Apr 202158min