This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. For generations, economists and

political activists have debated the merits of capitalist versus socialist economic systems.

But one feature both systems share is the need for a reliable and stable currency to execute

transactions. Money is such an ingrained part of our lives that we don't think much about where

it comes from or who injects it into the economy. But our guest, Jacob Goldstein, has thought about

it a lot. You may remember him as co-host for 10 years of the NPR program Planet Money. Goldstein

has written a book about the history and meaning of money, illuminating among other subjects how

the United States regulator of money, the Federal Reserve System, came into being and what it does.

The Fed is currently engaged in a battle to bring down the nation's inflation rate, which has been

stubbornly hyped despite the Fed's efforts. We thought it would be a good time to bring Goldstein in

to talk about the nature of money, the Fed, the battle against inflation, and how America developed

a single currency and the peculiar institution that manages it. Besides his work on Planet Money,

Jacob Goldstein has done stories for this American life, mourning addition, and all things considered.

Before his audio career, he was a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal in the Miami Herald.

He's currently an executive producer at the audio production company Pushkin Industries,

where he hosts the business and tech podcast, What's Your Problem? His book, Money, the true story

of a made up thing is now out in paperback. Jacob Goldstein, welcome to Fresh Air.

Hi Dave, thanks for having me. Let's start with a big monetary problem in the economy now,

inflation, worst it's been in many years, and the Federal Reserve is acting to try and bring it

under control. The Federal Reserve of course is an institution that kind of regulates the money

supply in the United States. We'll talk more in a bit about where the Fed came from and what it does.

But first, what is the Fed doing to fight inflation? How is it supposed to work?

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