Former Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida Talks Pandemic Monetary Policy and Inflation

Jon Hartley and Richard Clarida discuss the latter’’s career, academic contributions and government service, including his time as vice chair of the Federal Reserve. Their conversation covers key topics such as inflation in the early 2020s, monetary policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the upcoming Federal Reserve monetary policy framework review. They also discuss the legacy of the Fed’s flexible average inflation targeting (FAIT) enacted under Clarida’s leadership, the utility of DSGE models at the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world, and the early origins of “nowcasting”.

Recorded on September 20, 2024.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Richard Clarida served as vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System from September 2018 to January 2022. Clarida is also the C. Lowell Harriss Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University. He was assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy, serving two secretaries of the Treasury. Clarida is also a managing director of Pacific Investment Management Company’s (PIMCO) New York office and that firm’s global economic advisor. Prior to rejoining PIMCO in 2022, he was the firm's global strategic advisor from 2006 to 2018. Earlier in his career, Clarida was with Credit Suisse and Grossman Asset Management. He holds a PhD and a master's degree in economics from Harvard University. He received an undergraduate degree with Bronze Tablet Honors from the University of Illinois.

Jon Hartley is a Research Assistant at the Hoover Institution and an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, where he specializes in finance, labor economics, and macroeconomics. He is also currently a Research Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) and a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Jon is also a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and serves as chair of the Economic Club of Miami.

Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as well as in various policy roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, US Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada. Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes, and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC, and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list, and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

ABOUT THE SERIES:

Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics.

For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/