Timely Topics

“I never even considered taking an economics class, because I thought it was business. I thought it was about making money,” says Louise Sheiner, the Robert S. Kerr senior fellow in economic studies and policy director for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution. She talks about how she stumbled into economics after studying biology, her work in health economics and why she thinks high school debate could spark girls’ interest in econ.

St. Louis Fed economist Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria discusses her research on "search and matching," particularly as it relates to the marriage market. She notes that studying the marriage market is important because it has implications for income inequality and taxation.

“It's still a very important challenge to get more women and more minorities into the economics profession,” says Lael Brainard, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She talks about women in economics at the international level, her time as the U.S. representative to the G20, her focus on financial stability and more.

“There were times when you were the only woman in the room, and you had to bring your self-confidence, your belief in yourself, and the desire for excellence in your pursuits,” says Una Osili, associate dean and professor at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She talks about the intersection of economics and philanthropy, the state of women in economics internationally and the need for more people of color in the field.

Our Memphis regional executive and senior vice president, Douglas Scarboro, talks about how the Memphis Branch of the St. Louis Fed has changed over the past 100 years—from cotton receipts to cash services to the King himself—Elvis Presley.

Why do governments borrow? What happens when a country defaults on its debt? How does a country get out of a debt crisis? St. Louis Fed economist Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria answers these and other related questions.

“I think students need to be doing economics, so it’s not me telling them stories or showing them graphs,” says Gail Heyne Hafer, an economics professor at St. Louis Community College-Meramec and author of two children’s books about economics. She shares her stories of how students and teaching have changed during her three decades of teaching economics.

Rising inequality in both income and wealth are at levels comparable to the 1920s, before the Great Depression. St. Louis Fed economist Miguel Faria-e-Castro talks about the link between fiscal policy and inequality in the United States.

“I may be dyslexic and I can’t read very well. I flip numbers, but I can do calculus in my head,” says Diane Swonk, chief economist and managing director at accounting firm Grant Thornton, as she discusses how her learning disability became a strength. She also discusses how growing up during the economic “demise” of Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s helped show her how economics could have made a difference. “The economics I was learning explained it could have been avoided. And the reality that I could make a difference in this work and people’s lives, that this was really about human behavior, policy and interpreting how to make it better for the world—I was hooked that first class.”

By now, just about everyone has heard of bitcoin, but what's beyond that? Listen to St. Louis Fed economist David Andolfatto talk about the details of cryptocurrency, blockchain and regulation and how they differ – or don't – from banking systems past and present.