2024-05-27
57 分钟Hey, macro musing listeners, a quick update to today's show.
George Selgin and I discuss, among other things, the ongoing custodia case against the Federal Reserve regarding Custodia's pursuit of a Fedmaster account.
Soon after we finished recording the show, we learned that another fintech firm named Numisma had received conditional approval for access to a Fed master account.
Like Custodia, Numisma is a non FDIC, insured, non federally regulated bank.
But unlike custodia, Numisma is getting a fed master account.
This has raised some eyebrows since Numisma is associated with a former Fed governor.
The only other non FDIC, insured, non federally regulated bank to receive a Fed master account called reserve trust, was also associated with the former Fed governor.
This creates the impression that they were only given a Fed master account because of Fed connections.
Now, it is important to note that Numisma is not in the same type of fintech business as custodia.
Numismas business is shipping hard currency overseas.
The number of firms in this business has been shrinking and are largely foreign, which creates problems for us government policy objectives overseas.
This may be an important part of the story, even though the optics do not look great.
Still, as you can imagine, folks at custodia are livid, and we have a link to the response from the CEO of Custodia, Caitlin Long, in the show notes.
So check it out.
So rest assured, fintechs and master accounts at the Fed will continue to be a hot topic going forward, and we will have it covered here on the podcast.
Now onto the show.
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 Mercator center at George Mason University.
And I'm glad you decided to join us.
Our guest today is George Selgin.