Aaron Klein on the US's Real-Time Payments Problem and the Impact of Covid Era Quantitative Easing

Aaron Klein is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Aaron returns to the show to discuss his paper with George Selgin calling for real time payments, the inequality caused by the Fed's current payment processes, the results of Covid time QE, recommendations for dealing with future crises, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on December 11th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Aaron Klein on X: @AarondKlein Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:06- Faster Payments 00:29:09 - Fed Governance 00:30:35 - Quantitative Easing and Housing Inflation Post-COVID 00:52:16 - Fed Assets 01:01:149 - Outro

Per Åsberg Sommar is a senior advisor in the markets department at the Swedish central bank. In Per's first appearance on the show, he discusses his career as a central banker, the history of the Riksbank, evolutions in inflation targeting at the Riksbank, changes in the Sweden's central banks operating system, its new tool called the Deposit Requirement Facility, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on December 12th, 2025 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! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:08 - Per's Career 00:04:02 - Riksbank 00:09:07 - Inflation Targeting at Riksbank 00:11:56 - Riksbank's Operating System 00:15:39 - Certificate of Deposits 00:33:42 - Quantitative Tightening 00:36:42 - The Deposit Requirement Facility 00:45:38 - Other Central Banks and Demand-Driven Systems 00:58:16 - Outro

David Beckworth and producer Sam Alburger dive into the last year of Macro Musings. They discuss David's foray into Substack, their favorite episodes of the year, the most popular episodes of 2025, David's push for NGDP targeting, this year's most hotly contested episode, how the year 2025 will be remembered in macro history, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on December 10th, 2025 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! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:16 - Macroeconomic Policy Nexus 00:12:24 - David's All-Star AI FOMC 00:14:46 - Most Entertaining Economist Debate 00:16:46 - Underrated or Favorite Episodes 00:24:30 - Most Popular Episodes 00:26:15 - The Push for Nominal GDP Targeting 00:32:10 - Accountability at the Fed 00:36:23 - Bitcoin Policy Summit 00:40:28 - Macro Musings at the Atlanta Federal Reserve 00:44:32 - Review of 2024 in Macro 00:47:17 - Macro in 2025 00:51:40 - Thank You 00:55:48 - Outro

Veronique de Rugy is the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. In Veronique's first appearance on Macro Musings she discusses her career as a think tanker's think tanker, what the difference is between classical liberals and libertarians, how America's mindset has shifted on trade and immigration, the fiscal health of the United States, the US's impending debt crises, solutions for fixing the fiscal health of the United States, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on November 18th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Veronique on X: @VerodeRugy Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:18 - Vero's Career 00:17:35 - Vero's Career 00:24:32 - Fiscal Policy at Mercatus 00:40:59 - Steps Toward a Sustainable Fiscal Path  00:48:34 - Flattening the Debt Curve 00:59:13- Outro

Martha Gimbel is the executive director and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale. In Martha's first appearance on the show, she discusses the missing BLS job market data, the consequences of losing two months of labor market data, the impact of AI on the labor market in the short and long term, why it is hard to determine which job sectors AI will impact first, why people will keep learning foreign languages, the future impact tariffs will have on the economy, why US treasuries might get left for the hometown guy in a Hallmark Christmas movie, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on November 19th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Martha on X: @MarthaGimbel Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:48 - The Budget Lab at Yale 00:05:34 - Missing Government Data 00:14:21 - Artificial Intelligence 00:44:49 - Trade Wars 00:54:51 - Outro

Laurence Bristow is a former staffer at the Reserve Bank of Australia and currently is a Vice President and Research Associate at the Bank Policy Institute. In Laurence's first appearance on the show, he discusses the differences between the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Fed, The RBA's change in operating systems, what a demand driven system actually looks like, the motivation for the RBA to make this change, calls for changes to the operating system within the Fed, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on November 20th, 2025 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! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:22 - Laurie's Career 00:05:15 - Reserve Bank of Australia 00:11:33 - RBA's New Monetary Policy Implementation System 00:17:28 - What Is a Demand-Driven System? 00:26:02 - Interbank Market 00:31:33 - Motivations for a Demand-Driven System 00:40:10 - Bank Policy Institute Money Market Symposium 00:52:36 - Outro

Austin Campbell runs Zero Knowledge Group, a consulting and advising firm in the digital assets space and is an adjunct professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. In Austin's first appearance on the show, he discusses what comes next after the GENIUS Act, the debate with interest-on-reserves when it comes to stablecoins, the future of Tether, Governor Waller's proposal of skinny master accounts, the larger macro implications of stablecoins in Europe and the global South, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on November 14th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Austin on X: @CampbellJAustin Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:38 - Austin's Career 00:04:10 - What Comes After GENIUS? 00:7:26 - Interest and Stablecoins 00:12:30 - Tokenized Deposits 00:17:01 - Future of Tether 00:29:27 - Skinny Master Account 00:35:23 - Stablecoin Regulation 00:48:46 - Macro Implications 00:54:58 - Future of the Financial System 00:57:58 - Outro

Mike Bird is the Wall Street editor for The Economist magazine and is the author of The Land Trap: A New History of the World's Oldest Asset. Mike returns to the show to discuss the conclusion of Abenomics, the origins of land as an asset, the surge in housing prices during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the unsuspecting story of Wolf Ladejinsky, how housing impacted Japan's lost decade, the modern history of land in China, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on November 4th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Mike on X: @Birdyword Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:27 - Abenomics 00:04:32 - Motivations for The Land Trap 00:7:58 - Land as a Different Kind of Asset 00:14:55 - COVID-19 Housing Prices 00:20:42 - Land as an Enduringly Important Asset 00:24:34 - Wolf Ladejinsky 00:37:14 - Japan from 1980s Onward 00:47:28 - Land in China 00:56:36 - Henry George 01:00:42 - Outro

Lukasz Rachel is a former Bank of England economist and currently is an assistant professor of economics at the University College of London. In Lukasz's first appearance on the show he discusses his big career breaks, the implications of secular stagnation in the industrialized world, what is next for R-star, what non-Ricardian macro policy looks like, his policy prescriptions for the US, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on October 29th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Lukasz on X: @LukaszRachel Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:42 - Lukasz's Career 00:07:30 - Secular Stagnation in the Industrialized World 00:21:08 - What Next for R-Star? 00:36:11 - Brothers in Arms: Monetary-Fiscal Interactions 00:49:53 - Policy Recommendations 00:51:03 - Outro

Tara Sinclair is a professor and chair of the economics department at George Washington University. Tara returns to the show to discuss her ambitious paper simulating an FOMC meeting before it happens with LLM models, the process of building sim FOMC members, the importance of publicly funding economic data, the future of AI and macroeconomics, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on October 27th, 2025 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Tara on X: @TaraSinc Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:44 - Data and Policymaking 00:05:28 - Federal Forecasters Conference 00:08:01 - FOMC in Silico 00:32:56 - Future Applications 00:38:29 - Broader Implications 00:42:57 - Central Bank Governance and AI 00:51:40 - Outro