Paul Krugman in Conversation with Hélène Rey

My old teacher Charlie Kindleberger used to tell his students that anyone who spends too much time thinking about international money goes mad. It’s a subtle topic, one in which it’s all too easy to mistake mysticism for wisdom.

Fortunately that hasn’t happened (yet?) to Hélène Rey of the London Business School, one of my go-to economists on the international role of the dollar, exorbitant privilege, financial cycles and more. We talked Thursday about these subjects, with some inevitable discussion of current events. Transcript follows.

Paul Krugman: Hi everyone, Paul Krugman again. I am speaking this week with Hélène Rey who is one of the world’s leading experts on international macro and money, and especially on international roles of currencies. So we want to talk a lot about that. But first, hi, Hélène.

Hélène Rey: Hi Paul, delighted to be on again and to talk to you.

Krugman: Yeah. So there’s been a bit of news this past week. As you know, the Trump tariffs have come into full force supposedly. Before we get into sort of the more analytical economic stuff, sitting on your side of the Atlantic, what do things look like to you?