Kris Mitchener on What Actually Anchors the Price Level

克里斯·米切尔纳谈实际锚定价格水平的因素

Macro Musings with David Beckworth

2026-04-13

56 分钟

单集简介 ...

Kris Mitchener is a professor of economics at Santa Clara University and is an economic and monetary historian. In Kris's first appearance on the show, he discusses how he fell in love with building data sets out of old dusty archives, the origins and fall of bimetallism, the pros and cons of the gold standard, the problem of operating losses on the Fed's balance sheet, what truly anchors the price level, 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 March 4th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:33 - Kris' Career Path 00:06:32 - What Is Bimetallism? 00:14:41 - The Gold Standard 00:28:55 - Disinflation Policies and Central Bank Finances 00:49:25 - What Anchors the Price Level 00:55:22 - Outro
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单集文稿 ...

  • Welcome to Macro Musings, where each week we pull back the curtain and take a closer look at the most important

  • macroeconomic issues of the past, present, and future.

  • I am your host, David Beckworth, a Senior Research Fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,

  • and I'm glad you decided to join us.

  • Our guest today is Chris Michener.

  • Chris is a professor of economics, Santa Clara University, and is an economic and monetary historian.

  • And he joins us today to help us think about what determines the price level.

  • Chris, welcome to the show.

  • Thank you so much.

  • It's a pleasure to be here.

  • Longtime listener and happy to finally join you on your show.

  • So thanks for the opportunity.

  • Well, it's great to have you on.

  • As I mentioned, you're an economic and monetary economist and historian.

  • You've done a lot of interesting work on the Great Depression.

  • You've done work on bimetallism, the silver standard.

  • These are all things we want to touch on briefly today.

  • But you also had a paper that was really fascinating about central bank operating losses.

  • And so listeners and watchers of the show know I 've spent a lot of time thinking about these losses recently,

  • not just at the Fed, but at other central banks.