George Selgin | Government-Mandated Shutdown: Monetary & Fiscal Policy in Crisis

Hidden Forces

Demetri Kofinas

Business, Government

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2020

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 128 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with George Selgin, director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute about the recently announced monetary and fiscal policy measures being undertaken to stem the economic fallout from COVID-19 and the government mandated shutdown of the American economy. This is a deep-dive into the specifics of the Federal Reserve and US government's policies, including the mechanics of the monetary and fiscal stimulus.

We are living in unprecedented times. The closest analogy to what we are experiencing is the mobilization undertaken to fight World War II with one crucial difference: this is a radical demobilization of the American economy. To fight the virus, Americans are being asked to stay in their homes and move about as little as possible. In order to survive a prolonged period of commercial inactivity governments have moved swiftly to pass monetary and fiscal stimulus measures that are themselves as unprecedented as the current lock-down of the global economy. How far will these measures go and what will Western countries like the United States look like on the other side of this crisis? Answering this question may prove more important than any other we have posed before on this program, and we try to answer it today.

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode of Hidden Forces is made possible by listeners like you.
0:04.4	For more information about this week's episode or for easy access to related programming
0:09.7	visit our website at hidden Forces. I.O. and subscribe to our free email list.
0:16.4	If you listen to the show on your Apple Podcast app, remember, you can give us a review.
0:21.5	Each review helps more people find the show and join our
0:24.9	amazing community. And with that, please enjoy this week's episode. And the What's up everybody? My guest on this week's episode of Hidden Forces is Dr George Selgin, a senior fellow and the
0:56.0	director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute and Professor
1:02.4	Emeritus of Economics at the University of Georgia.
1:06.2	Dr Selgin, welcome to Hidden Forces.
1:08.8	Thank you, it's nice to be here.
1:10.8	It's my pleasure having you on. It seems like a very appropriate time to have you on the program given everything that's been going on not just in markets but specifically with Central Banks and the Fed. Indeed, there's quite a lot happening, of course, and I have never been in more demand.
1:29.0	I'm not sure all things considered, I'm sure it would be better if this weren't so.
1:35.0	Well, I've wanted to have you on for a while to talk about Fed policy,
1:39.0	specifically the move to a floor system. You wrote book called Florida you've written many books and I actually
1:47.6	I don't know if you were at the Cato Institute when I was there for a conference this summer or early fall I don't think you presented
1:57.1	but in any case you've published how many books like 12 or something?
2:01.2	Oh well if you count the little ones probably still not that
2:06.2	many I'd say maybe 10. Okay so for those of our listeners who may not be
2:11.1	familiar with you give us your background, who you are, and your interest in Fed policy.
2:17.0	Well, I like to say these days that I'm a recovering academic. I taught for 30 years. I was a professor of economics at the University of
2:27.5	Georgia where I'm a meritus now but also at some other schools. My first
2:32.0	appointment was George Mason University.
	...

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