David Barboza, a Brilliant, Informed, and Thoughtful China Expert, Discusses U.S.-China Relations. The Relationship has gone from Distant to Close and Now to Dangerous as the U.S. Faces Economic Irrelevance

Trump, the German View. A Discussion with Rüdiger Bachmann, One of Germany's Most Influential Economists and Public Intellectuals

Is Musk-Trump's Evisceration of Financial Oversight Sheer Lunacy? Richard Berner, NYU Professor of Finance, Former First Director of the Treasury's Office of Financial Research, and Former Morgan Stanley Chief Economics Sounds the Alarm!I'm delighted to have my long-time friend, Dick (Richard) Berner, on the podcast. Dick is among the most knowledgeable economists in the world when it comes to the workings of U.S. and global financial markets, particularly their risk of collective collapse. Dick is Clinical Professor of Management Practice in the Department of Finance, and, with Professor Robert Engle, Co-Director of the Stern Volatility and Risk Institute. Having served as Chief Economist for Morgan Stanley and the first Director of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Research (OFR) -- our government's financial market watchdog, Dick is perfectly poised to address the risks arising from the Trump Administration's arbitrary termination of top financial-stability officials as well as DOGE data breaches of every American's tax and other financial records. More on Richard BernerProfessor Berner received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard College in 1968, and his PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. Berner was counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury from April 2011 to 2013. Professor Berner was a managing director, chief US economist at Morgan Stanley from 1999 to 2011 and co-head of Global Economics from 2008 to 2011. Berner served as executive vice president and chief economist at Mellon Bank. He also was a member of Mellon's Senior Management Committee (1992-99). Previously, he served as a principal and senior economist for Morgan Stanley, as a director and senior economist for Salomon Brothers (1985-91), as economist for Morgan Guaranty Trust Company (1982-85) and as director of the Washington, DC, office of Wharton Econometrics (1980-82).Professor Berner served on the research staff of the Federal Reserve in Washington (1972-80). He has been an adjunct professor of economics at Carnegie-Mellon University and at George Washington University. He is an advisor to FinRegLab, an innovation center that tests new technologies and data to inform public policy and promote a responsible and inclusive financial marketplace. He is a member of the Milken Fintech initiative, led by former OCC head Tom Curry and former Treasury official Melissa Koide. He is a senior advisor to MacroPolicy Perspectives, an economic consulting firm. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of HData, which helps data companies involved in RegTech and Legal Tech solutions. He is a member of the IMF panel of experts for financial stability. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation.

Terry Savage, our Nation's Brilliant Personal Finance Guru, Returns to Economics Matters to Discuss Roth Conversions

Superb Economist, Moshe Milevsky, Discusses Mitigating Longevity Risks Via Past, Present, and Future Tontines/AnnuitiesMoshe Milevsky is one of my all-time favorite economists. He's a true expert on personal financial economics and when it comes to longevity risk, there is no greater authority. He's also a joy to learn from. Moshe has an uncanny ability to deliver complex ideas in the simplest possible manner with the help of his secret weapon -- his terrific sense of humor. You are going to thoroughly enjoy this Economics Matters podcast. Here's Moshe's wiki bio.  Moshe Milevsky is a professor of finance at the Schulich School of Business at York University, and a member of the Graduate Faculty in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, in Toronto, Canada, where he has been based and teaching for over 25 years. He earned a B.A. in mathematics and physics from Yeshiva University in 1990, an M.A. in mathematics and statistics from York University in 1992 and a Ph.D. in business finance from York University in 1996. His area of expertise is in mathematical financial economics, pensions, insurance, actuarial science and history of financial products. He has done extensive research on exotic option pricing, quantitative personal financial planning (focusing on investment strategies for retiring individuals), insurance derivatives, pensions, annuities, tontines and stochastic mortality models.[2] He is also the executive director of the Individual Finance and Insurance Decisions Centre (IFID), a non-profit corporation dedicated to generating advanced research at the intersection of wealth management, personal finance, and insurance.[3] For his contributions to the Fields Institute and to the Canadian mathematical community, Moshe was inducted as a Fields Institute Fellow in 2002.[4] Moshe A. Milevsky is the author of 17 books, including the popular Are You a Stock or a Bond, and The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement and the more advanced The Calculus of Retirement Income, which summarizes much of the research that Milevsky has done on quantitative retirement income planning.[5] His recent books include King William's Tontine: Why the Retirement Annuity of the Future Should Resemble Its Past (Cambridge 2015) and The Day the King Defaulted: Financial Lessons from the Stop of the Exchequer in 1672.

Liz Weston, the Internet's Most Read Personal Finance Columnist Joins Economics Matters -- the Podcast to Share Her Career-Long Trove of Critical Financial Secrets and Advice Liz Weston is the most-read personal finance columnist on the Internet. Her twice-weekly columns for MSN Money generate 10 million page views each month, and millions more read her Q&A columns that appear in newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as well as her regular column for AARP. She is a frequent commentator on American Public Media’s Marketplace Money and contributor to National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered. Her television appearances include Dr. Phil, Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Fox Business and CNBC’s Power Lunch.I've known Liz for a long time. She is a wonderful journalist and person. Please listen/view this highly informative podcast covering Liz's career, advice, and thinking on a wide range of personal finance questions. Regardless of your walk in life, this podcast will provide you food for both thought and financial action. 

Jay Abolofia, PhD economist, CFP, and President of Lyon Financial Planning, shares his expertise on optimizing Roth conversions for significant tax savings. He introduces the MaxiFi Roth Conversion Optimizer, a tool designed to strategically manage tax implications during retirement. The conversation delves into the complexities of capital gains taxes and the timing of Social Security benefits. Jay emphasizes personalized strategies over conventional planning methods, illustrating how well-timed conversions can lead to increased discretionary income and long-term financial stability.

A year back, George Kinder joined Economics Matters -- the Podcast, to discuss his life's passion -- integrating Mindfulness, Meditation, and Money. They sound like strange bedfellows, but George is one part Henry Thoreau, one part Zen Master, one part Financial Guru, and ten parts Mensch. George's bio is here. He's a giant in the field of personal finance, based not just on his unique philosophical approach to money, but due to having trained thousands of financial planners -- in person or via his writings, about the path to personal and professional enlightenment. This requires, as George's new book points out, learning how to freeze, release, and expand each of our moments. Our lives are a sequence of moments. We have the freedom to control those moments, to make them longer by making them more productive and meaningful. This carries over to expanding the effective time in our lives, permitting us to have the time of our lives -- for ourselves and others. That's real freedom. 

Medicare Open Enrollment Is Here! And Phil Moeller's Back to Discuss his New Book: Get What's Yours for Medicare: Revised and Updated.  Phil's hot new book, Get What's Yours for Medicare: Maximize Your Coverage and Minimize Your Cost --  is available at Simon & Schuster as well as here, here, and here. Phil's my good friend and co-author with PBS NewsHour's Paul Solman of our NY Times best seller and fully up-to-date, Get What's Yours -- the Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security. This is Phil's second appearance on Economics Matters -- the Podcast. We discuss recent changes to Medicare and how best to decide whether to choose Traditional Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan during the current open enrollment period. This is a complex decision.  Grab your kids, grab your spouse, grab your friends, and have everyone read Get What's Yours for Medicare: Revised and Updated before helping you make this major decision. 

Famed Washington Post Columnist and Editorial Board Member, Eduardo Porter, Joins Economics Matters --- the Podcast! Eduardo's books, The Price of Everything and American Poison are must reads. But then there's been an endless and ongoing stream of simply outstanding columns. Take this 2018, NY Times article on the Rust Belt. Roughly 800 words later, you have almost all you need to know about why "Make America Great Again" is not about fighting our supposed foreign economic enemies or keeping out rapists immigrants stealing our jobs. Instead, it's about education, city-specific economic initiatives, attracting new business, and capitalizing on the diversity of the available workforce. Listen or watch as Eduardo discusses our terrible, mixed-up, tribal, and also sporadically fantastic country and world. Eduardo has lived everywhere, investigated everything, listened to everyone, and thought out of the box on the entire gamut of economic, political, and social issues. He's a national treasure, not just for what he writes, not just for how he writes, but for showing everyone what journalism at the highest level continues to be.  Here's Eduardo's Washington Post bio page with a treasure trove of his writings. And those are simply articles in the Post. Eduardo spent two decades writing for and serving on the editorial board of the NY Times.  Before that, it was Bloomberg and others. Eduardo speaks five languages.