Macro Musings Blog

My latest Macro Musings podcast is with Lars Christensen, an internationally renowned Danish economist and Senior Fellow at London’s Adam Smith Institute. Lars joined me to discuss the Eurozone crisis and the current challenges facing the international money system.

One of the key questions we covered is whether Europe was an optimal currency region to begin with and whether it can survive in its current form. We also spent time considering the role the ECB played in making the crisis worse with its tightening of monetary policy in 2008 and 2011. Finally, we examine the role the Fed plays internationally through its influence on the “dollar bloc” countries--those countries that either use explicitly or implicitly peg to the U.S. dollar--and global monetary conditions more generally.

It was a great conversation and readers can learn more about Lars and some of the topics by looking at the links below.

You can listen to the podcast via iTunes or Sound Cloud, or through the embedded player. And remember to subscribe since more guest are coming!

Related Links
Lars Christensen's Blog
Lars Christensen's Twitter Account
Eurozone Counterfactual--David Beckworth
The Origins of the Eurozone Monetary Crisis--David Beckworth
International Impact of the Fed When the US is Banker to the World--David Beckworth & Chris Crowe