Barry Eichengreen is a is well known author, economist, and economic historian from the University of California, Berkeley. Paul Blustein is a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal journalist who has authored several acclaimed books on global economic institutions. Brendan Greeley is a veteran journalist from the Financial Times and current PhD student at Princeton studying monetary history. They all return to the show for a special roundtable discussion where they discuss the history of dominant currencies, whether we will always end up with a single reserve currency, whether monetary sovereignty is earned or given, the question of exorbitant privilege, what there is to do about a second China Shock, the future of dollars in the digital age, and much more.

Watch the full length video on our new YouTube Channel!

Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.

Recorded on May 11th, 2026

Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus

Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth

Follow Barry Eichengreen on X: @B_Eichengreen

Follow Paul Blustein on X: @PaulBlustein

Follow Brendan Greeley on X: @BHGreeley

Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings

Check out our Macro Musings merch!

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:01 - On Each Author's Book

00:11:12 - Globally Dominant Currencies

00:25:37 - Single Reserve Currency

00:28:34 - Fed's Control Over Global Dollar System

00:38:39 - Exorbitant Privilege

00:46:30 - China Shock 2.0

00:49:23 - Future of the Global Dollar System

00:58:16 - Outro

Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Mercatus Center at George Mason University och inte av, eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.