From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker, from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Thank you very much for joining us. And if you're not already, please be sure to subscribe at Apple Podcast, Spotify and elsewhere.

Do kindly leave us a very nice review.

Free expression, we believe, is essential to a healthy democracy.

And each week on this podcast, I aim to contribute by having a wide-ranging,

candid conversation with leading practitioners and commentators in the world of politics,

business, economics, technology, the arts and culture, exploring in depth the themes,

people, and topics shaping our world. My guest this week, a very big week for the US and culture, exploring in depth the themes, people and topics shaping our world.

My guest this week, a very big week for the US and global economy, I'm glad to say, is

Mohamed L. Aryan, economist and long-standing expert on global financial markets.

Muhammad worked for many years at Pimco, the preeminent bond investment fund, where he was CEO and

co-chief investment officer. He was also

CEO of Harvard Management Company, which invests Harvard University's significant endowment. He is now

president of Queens College, Cambridge, and chief economic advisor to Allianz, the insurance giant.

Now, among many notable calls in his long and successful career, Muhammad was one of several

prominent economists who last year warned that

inflation was a serious and sustained threat to the US economy, and he called for action by

policymakers, particularly the central bank, to address the challenge. Now, this was at a time when

the Federal Reserve and the Biden administration were dismissing the jump in inflation as

infamously transitory. A year later, Muhammad's warnings have proved sadly prescient, and we're now struggling with the consequences of what appears to be significant complacency by the policy makers. So, Mohamed Elarion joins me now. Thanks, Mohamed. Thank you. So as I say, very big week for the economy. I should say we're recording this Tuesday afternoon, New York time. Federal Reserve is meeting and they'll have

their decision on interest rates tomorrow, widely expected to raise rates again, but probably by 75 basis

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