Timely Topics

David Andolfatto, senior vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, talks about how a hot money credit program could help kick-start the stalled economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ana Kent, policy analyst at the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability, talks about how COVID-19 could cause devastating financial setbacks for millennials, a generation still reeling from the Great Recession, with little to no financial buffer and facing sizable job losses.

Charles Gascon, St. Louis Fed regional economist, discusses his research on COVID-19 schools closings and how they may impact worker productivity, children’s education and even existing gender gaps.

Senior Economist Ana Maria Santacreu and Economist Fernando Leibovici, both of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discuss their research on essential medical equipment imports and how the U.S. is facing a massive shortage of these supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ray Boshara, an assistant vice president, and Lowell Ricketts, lead analyst, both at the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability, talk about which families are the most vulnerable to income shock like COVID-19.

Juan Sanchez, an assistant vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses COVID-19 related economic shocks and his research on financially distressed Americans. He talks about income declines, social distancing, disease spread and more.

Mary Suiter, an assistant vice president and the economic education officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses April as Financial Literacy Month and offers tips for how parents can teach decision-making skills to their children.

Alexander Monge-Naranjo, an economist and officer in the Research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses the role of human capital as a determinant of a country’s income.

Christopher Neely, a vice president in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses why central banks around the world adopted the practice of setting explicit inflation targets.

Julian Kozlowski, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses his research on the Great Recession and how it changed people’s perceptions. He also explains why listeners should be interested in liquidity and its effects on interest rates.

Don Schlagenhauf, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses his research on the rise in house prices and home ownership rates from 1940 to 1960. He explains the role of changes in government policy, mortgage financing, productivity and the purchasers’ income, age and education.

Sungki Hong, a St. Louis Fed economist, talks about complex production networks: When a “hub” industry like construction contracts, it can hit other industries hard. He discusses how this unfolded amid the Great Recession and why he’s curious about the technology industry today.

Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, talks about the Bretton Woods system, establishing an international monetary system, European reconstruction, and winners and losers from Bretton Woods.

Sungki Hong, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, talks about which occupations may be more affected by automation than others; what motivates firms to automate jobs; and the many forms automation may take, including machines, programs and self-driving cars.

The Federal Reserve is currently undertaking a review of its monetary policy framework. Why is the Fed doing this review? What does it entail? What will policymakers do with the information gathered? St. Louis Fed President James Bullard addresses these and related questions.

Ray Boshara—senior adviser and the director of the Center for Household Financial Stability at the St. Louis Fed—talks about the Center’s first five years, its purpose and its future. He discusses lessons learned when looking from a balance sheet perspective at the recovery following the Great Recession.

B. Ravikumar, senior vice president at the St. Louis Fed, talks about the role international trade plays in cross-country income differences. He discusses the study of economic development, who wins and who loses in trade, barriers to trade and more.

Julie Stackhouse, executive vice president at the St. Louis Fed, talks about the Federal Reserve’s role in bank supervision. She discusses the critical nature of this function during and since the financial crisis, the changing landscape for community banks, the growth of fintech, and more.

What is nominal GDP targeting, and how does it differ from inflation targeting? What would be some of the advantages and disadvantages of using nominal GDP targeting? Have any central banks used it? St. Louis Fed President James Bullard addresses these and related questions.

The 2017 federal tax overhaul reduced the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. In this podcast, Economist Don Schlagenhauf discusses the paper he wrote with two co-authors, “Corporate Income Tax, Legal Form of Organization, and Employment” and what their models say the optimal rate is.