Warwick Economics student August Küenburg releases new podcast Econ Bites

August Küenburg (BSc Economics, Year 2) has released an exciting new podcast Econ Bites, exploring economic public policymaking and its key figures and institutions. In his impressive first episode, August interviews Jonathan Haskel, member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, to discuss central bank independence and inflation targeting. We caught up with August about his fascinating new project.

Hi August! Why did you decide to start creating and publishing your own podcast?

Having my own podcast gives me the opportunity to talk to inspiring people in the field of economics about all kinds of interesting topics and share these conversations with other interested people. Preparing a podcast episode is a fun learning experience and an excellent way to deepen my own understanding about certain topics that we begin to cover as undergraduate economics students.

Your first episode has a very exciting guest – Jonathan Haskel. Can you explain who he is and why you’ve chosen to interview him?

Jonathan Haskel is a Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School and is currently serving his second term as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Jonathan holds one of the nine votes to decide the future of the UK monetary policy. His experience as a central banker and ability to explain complex matters with often simple analogies makes him the perfect guest for my podcast episode.

Why should people listen to this episode with Jonathan?

Listeners will hopefully gain a better understanding of how the MPC operates and why inflation targeting and central bank independence are essential to ensure effective and credible monetary policy. Jonathan makes an excellent point about how economists have too long held a machine-like view of the economy and that a major intellectual breakthrough was needed to start treating the economy much more systematically.

For this episode you’ve done a lot of research into the history of the Bank of England and its policymaking on matters such as inflation. How has your degree in economics equipped you with the skills to complete this research?

One of my optional models, Money and Banking, discusses monetary policy and central bank independence in more detail and this motivated me to do further research into central banks. Most of my preparation goes into reading the literature and gaining a solid understanding of the topic.

Your podcast demonstrates a keen interest in policymaking – are you planning to pursue a career path in this area?

At the moment I want to pursue a career in public policy, being as a central banker or maybe as an economist at the International Monetary Fund or World Bank.

Talking to people in those fields is an exciting opportunity for me to learn more about their jobs and why they matter so much. Policymaking has a real impact on people’s lives, and I believe that coming up with new insights and solutions to various economic issues could be a very interesting and fulfilling career prospect.

I hope to have more central bankers, academics and economists working on public policy on my podcast in the future.

August Küenburg (BSc Economics, year 2)

You can listen to August’s first episode of his podcast Econ Bites on Spotify here.