Bill Nelson is chief research officer and chief economist at the Bank Policy Institute and a former deputy director of the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board. In Bill's 11th appearance on the show, he discusses how central banks are rethinking their operating systems, the case for a smaller Fed balance sheet and more routine discount window borrowing, the revival of interbank markets, lessons from Silicon Valley Bank, 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 July 20th, 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 - Bill's Work with Central Banks Abroad
00:11:03 - Reducing the Fed's Balance Sheet
00:30:28 - Fed's Use of a Demand-Driven System
00:40:40 - Voluntary Reserve Target
00:54:31 - Outro

Gianluca Benigno is a professor of economics at the University of Lausanne. Previously, he was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an economist at the Bank of England. Gianluca returns to the program to discuss financial r-star, the changing landscape of central bank balance sheets, the unique challenges facing the Swiss National Bank, how stablecoins could affect Treasury markets and the demand for reserves, the return of nonlinear inflation, its implications for monetary policy, 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 June 22nd, 2026

Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus

Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth

Follow Gianluca Benigno on X: @BenignoGianluca

Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings

Check out our Macro Musings merch!

Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:41 - R-Double-Star
00:04:10 - Central Bank Balance Sheets
00:09:22 - Swiss National Bank
00:32:05 - Working Paper on the Regulation of Stablecoins
00:45:41 - Inflation
00:53:19 - Outro

Barry Eichengreen is a is well known author, economist, and economic historian from the University of California, Berkeley. Paul Blustein is a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal journalist who has authored several acclaimed books on global economic institutions. Brendan Greeley is a veteran journalist from the Financial Times and current PhD student at Princeton studying monetary history. They all return to the show for a special roundtable discussion where they discuss the history of dominant currencies, whether we will always end up with a single reserve currency, whether monetary sovereignty is earned or given, the question of exorbitant privilege, what there is to do about a second China Shock, the future of dollars in the digital age, 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 11th, 2026

Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus

Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth

Follow Barry Eichengreen on X: @B_Eichengreen

Follow Paul Blustein on X: @PaulBlustein

Follow Brendan Greeley on X: @BHGreeley

Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings

Check out our Macro Musings merch!

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:01 - On Each Author's Book

00:11:12 - Globally Dominant Currencies

00:25:37 - Single Reserve Currency

00:28:34 - Fed's Control Over Global Dollar System

00:38:39 - Exorbitant Privilege

00:46:30 - China Shock 2.0

00:49:23 - Future of the Global Dollar System

00:58:16 - Outro