How Do We Define a Currency?

Odd Lots

Bloomberg

News, Investing, Business, News Commentary, Business News

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is a currency? This turns out to be one of those questions we just kind of skip over because we don't have clear answers to it (and because economists often like to skip over these foundational things). This special episode of the Odd Lots podcast was recorded as part of Princeton University's “How to Write the Biography of a Currency” event, hosted by the Princeton Economic History Workshop and the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance. In this discussion, we talk about how we should define a currency and how that definition has changed (or not) over time. Our panelists were Iñaki Aldasoro, an economist at the Bank for International Settlements, Indiana University Bloomington Professor Rebecca Spang, and Stefan Ingves, the former head of the Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, from 2006 to 2022.

Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking & World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:04.0	You know what's great about your investment account with the big guys?
0:07.1	It's actually a time machine.
0:08.8	Log in and Zoom.
0:10.2	Welcome back to 1999.
0:13.1	It's time for an upgrade.
0:14.9	At public.com, you can invest in almost everything, stocks, bonds, options, and more.
0:19.3	You could even put your cash to work at an industry-leading 4.1% APY.
0:23.2	Leave your clunky, outdated platform behind at public.com.
0:26.4	Go to public.com slash podcast and fund your account in five minutes or less.
0:30.6	Paid for by Public Investing Inc. member FINRA and SIPC.
0:33.3	Full disclosures at public.com slash disclosures.
0:36.6	The data that matters for your investments.
0:39.3	The entire auto sector is higher today.
0:41.8	And analysis on the companies making news on Wall Street.
0:44.9	Tesla's been a stock that's been in focus.
0:46.4	Shears have really been all over the math this morning.
0:48.6	Listen to the Stock Movers Report from Bloomberg.
0:51.5	Let's talk about some other decliner.
0:53.4	It's your short audio report on the day, winners and losers in the stock market.
0:57.9	Second biggest driver in terms of points for the S&P 500.
1:01.0	Subscribe to the Stockmovers report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bloomberg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bloomberg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.