281. Austan Goolsbee: Chicago Fed President on Inflation, Interest Rates & the Real State of the U.S. Economy!
Trading Secrets
Audioboom Studios
4.9 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Jason is joined by one of the most influential voices in American economics — Austan Goolsbee, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago!
In a rare and time-sensitive episode, Jason goes straight to the source on what’s happening in the economy right now — so timely, in fact, the Fed required the episode to be released before their next meeting. Austan breaks down what the Federal Reserve actually does (and what it doesn’t), why Chicago has its own Fed, and how monetary policy decisions get made behind the scenes — from interest rates and inflation to employment and consumer spending.
Austan also opens up about his path from University of Chicago professor to the White House, including how a personal connection with Barack Obama turned into a front-row seat during one of the most intense economic moments in modern history. He shares what surprised him most about policymaking in Washington, the pressure of making massive decisions with limited information, and why having diverse perspectives — your own “personal board of directors” — matters more than people realize.
They get into why consumers still feel crushed by prices even when inflation cools, what’s driving the strength of the economy, and why housing affordability may be the biggest long-term issue facing younger generations. Austan even reveals what he considers the ultimate trading secret — and why, despite everything that can go wrong in the world, long-term investing has historically rewarded patience and belief in human innovation.
Austan reveals all this and more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!
Host: Jason Tartick
Co-Host: David Arduin
Audio: John Gurney
Guest: Corporate Bro Ross Pomerantz
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. This one is unbelievable. We have the CEO of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank coming on. |
| 0:25.8 | All things finance. Everything happening in the economy right now. In fact, this was such a time |
| 0:31.4 | sensitive episode that the Fed required us to get this episode out this week before their next Fed meeting. |
| 0:39.9 | Otherwise, we could not release the episode. |
| 0:42.4 | That's how timely this is. |
| 0:44.0 | But before we get into that, a little update for our listeners. |
| 0:47.3 | First and foremost, I got a gift card to give away. |
| 0:49.7 | Give us five stars. |
| 0:50.7 | Let us know what your biggest takeaway of the most recent episode you listen to or this |
| 0:54.7 | episode was. Next week in the recap, I'll give that gift card away. The other thing, we keep saying, |
| 1:00.4 | David, JTA, JTA, JTA, well, the time has come this week, Thursday. I am flying to Buffalo, |
| 1:08.4 | New York. David and I are doing a JTA. |
| 1:11.1 | I will be asking you guys for what questions you want David to ask me. |
| 1:14.8 | We're recording it live this Thursday. |
| 1:17.4 | And I also have a special for you, David. |
| 1:18.9 | We're going 7.30 to 8.30 in Buffalo at 8.30? |
| 1:23.0 | I have a Buffalo-born U.S. women's gold medal champion from the women's hockey team coming on to join us. So a lot going on this week. How are you feeling? What are you thinking about JTA? I'm excited. It's booked. I mean, I feel bad for the people out there. We are not ones that to like to lead the people on. I feel like that that's what we've been doing. But schedules, we didn't want to do it virtual. |
| 1:45.3 | We didn't want to settle for that. |
| 1:46.9 | We did it in studio. We're doing it at the same studio as last year. Good vibes in that studio. It's been a good year since the day we recorded that episode in that studio. I feel like life's been on the up and up. but I'm looking forward to hitting on a few of those points in the old JDA. |
| 2:01.7 | So we're recording that Thursday, March 5th. I love it. Thursday, March 5th is coming before we ringing the bell, David. How you feeling? What's the biggest challenge in your life right now? The biggest challenge of my life is, you know, we got these fancy cameras here. I'm now in 4K. I got a little ringlight on me. I have, it's been a good year since JTA, but I still can't get over those clips from JTA because I just, as Justin Bieber said, love yourself. I just don't love myself in those clips. So the way that I looked and appeared, and now I'm back in that hot seat. So with two kids, end of the hockey season, I'm just trying to navigate. I'm just trying to do my best. That's my biggest challenge, Jay. What about you? Well, let me ask you this. This past weekend, did you have any good meals, good cheat meals? Did you have anything? I got, you know what? I wasn't bad this weekend, but then on the bus ride home from Toronto and my hockey trip, I had a pizza to myself, just a post-game road pizza and then cheese, pepperoni sausage, what do we put up there? Half pepperoni and then half of it was cheese. So our travel lady takes care of us for both. And then I was on a three-hour bus ride and I got completely influenced on TikTok to try the new big arch sandwich for McDonald's. |
| 3:09.0 | So I hit McDonald's on the drive-thru home. Just what I didn't eat. It's not what I needed right now. So I got to stop complaining about it. What's the big arch sam? What is it? It's new. It's double patties. And they're like big patties. Like the biggest patties McDonald's ever came out with raw onions and crispy onions, pickles on it, white cheese, new little sesame seed double types of sesame. You got the black |
| 3:27.6 | sesame seeds, white, ever came out with raw onions and crispy onions pickles on it white cheese new little sesame seed |
... |
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