The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity connects you to cutting edge economic policy research and the renowned economists who create it. On each episode, the...
How will the Federal Reserve revise its monetary policy framework in 2025?
The Federal Reserve’s “Statement on Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy”—commonly referred to as its monetary policy framework—is composed of guiding principles the central bank uses in setting and communicating policy. Since the Fed last updated this framework in 2020, the global economy has faced unique challenges: COVID-19 shutdowns, widespread supply chain issues, and multiple global wars. In 2025, the Fed Board will be tasked with reviewing the framework, identifying what has worked well and what hasn’t, and updating it accordingly. On this episode of the Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, David Wessel sits down with Brian Sack and Christina Romer, both former policymakers and authors of new research on the Fed framework's successes and shortfalls. Show notes and transcript The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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33:22
How will the clean energy transition affect wages?
The clean energy transition has quietly pushed ahead in recent decades, with solar and wind energy accounting for almost 15% of total U.S. energy production in February 2024. The benefits of this transition on climate change have been celebrated, but less acknowledged have been the potential economic benefits. In a new paper, “The economic impacts of clean power,” Costas Arkolakis and Conor Walsh explain how cheaper electricity resulting from this transition could lead to a 2-3% increase in national wages. On this episode of the Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, Walsh discusses his research with Sanjay Patnaik, director of Brookings’s Center on Regulation and Markets. Show notes and transcript The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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18:47
How does Congress react to budget deficit projections?
Fiscal deficit projections are used by policymakers to understand the trajectory of U.S. debt. Between 1984 and 2003, Congress was responsive to these projections, raising taxes and cutting spending when projections showed that the deficit would grow. However, since 2004, fiscal policy has ceased being responsive to debt projections regardless of the party in power. In a new paper, “Robust Fiscal Stabilization,” Alan Auerbach and Danny Yagan of the University of California, Berkeley, quantify this phenomenon by comparing fiscal legislation across the two periods. On this episode, Auerbach discusses the findings and their implications with Brookings Senior Fellow William Gale. Show notes and transcript The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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21:58
What is the value of dynamic scoring for legislators?
When Congress considers legislation, nonpartisan agencies provide estimates of the law’s potential economic effects to policymakers, a process known as “scoring.” In recent decades, analysts at the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation have developed models that incorporate complex feedback effects, going beyond conventional scoring techniques. These “dynamic scoring” methods can produce significantly different estimates of a law’s economic impact, but there are tradeoffs in applying them in different policy areas. On this episode Doug Elmendorf and Glenn Hubbard join Wendy Edelberg, director of The Hamilton Project, for a discussion on the costs and benefits of dynamic scoring. Show notes and transcript The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
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31:06
What role should sanctions play in foreign policy? The case of Russia.
Since 2022, Western nations have put a number of sanctions on Russia in response to its war in Ukraine. Policymakers and pundits have debated the efficacy of these measures, but this debate is belied by a deeper question: what does it mean for sanctions to “work”? In new BPEA research, Oleg Itskhoki of Harvard and Elina Ribakova of the Peterson Institute for International Economics explore fundamental questions of the theory and practice of sanctions in the Russia context. On this episode of the Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, Ben Harris, director of Economic Studies at Brookings, joins the authors for a discussion on what’s next for Russia and developing a doctrine of economic statecraft. Show notes and transcript The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].
The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity connects you to cutting edge economic policy research and the renowned economists who create it. On each episode, the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity editors introduce new BPEA research and present a conversation between the author and a Brookings scholar to bridge the divide between economic theory and practical policy solutions.
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