This episode is sponsored by SGX – the largest Asian FX exchange. In this episode, I talk with Raghuram Rajan. He is currently Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth. Before that, he was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India between September 2013 and September 2016. Between 2003 and 2006, Dr. Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the IMF. He’s the author of several books – most recently, the excellent “The Third Pillar: How the State and Markets are leaving Communities Behind” in 2019. In this podcast we discuss: The sources of economic weakness around COVID The 5 steps policymakers need to take from relief to reform The fallacy of MMT and the absence of free lunches Debt levels matter - for every Japan, there is an Argentina Should international markets be liberalized? Dollar’s status as reserve currency China’s challenging growth prospects India’s wrong turn Rise of authoritarianism The failure to understand fall-out from international treaties What needs to be done to be optimistic about the future