Basil Halperin is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia. In Basil's first appearance on the show he discusses the famous but flawed Citrini essay, why Silicon Valley's growth expectations aren't showing up yet in interest rates, the impact of Less Than Zero by George Selgin, what the true frictions in the economy are, the differences between Calvo and menu-cost pricing, the impact of transformational AI on emerging economies and the housing market, and much more.

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Recorded on March 27th, 2026

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:20 - Global Intelligence Crisis

00:07:04 - Transformative AI and Interest Rates

00:21:05 - Optimal Monetary Policy Under Menu Costs

00:48:13 - Transformative AI and its Macro Implications

00:55:41 - Outro

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.

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 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