Jon Hartley and Steve Hanke discuss Hanke’s career as an academic and policy advisor, including the virtues of using currency boards to combat hyperinflation and when dollarizing is useful.
The conversation also looks back at Hanke’s time on President Reagan’s White House Council of Economic Advisers and helping to fight inflation in Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America.
Recorded on September 3, 2026.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Steve H. Hanke is a professor of applied economics and founder and co-director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In addition to numerous affiliations with research centers around the world, Hanke is also a senior advisor at AMG Critical Materials NV in Amsterdam. In the past, he served in several senior government roles, including as an advisor in several countries, in some of which he helped establish new currency regimes, and as a senior economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. Currently, he is ranked as the world’s No. 3rd most influential economist by Focus Economics in Barcelona, Spain. Hanke is the author of several books, including most recently, Making Money Work: How to Rewrite the Rules of our Financial System (Wiley, 2025) with Matt Sekerke.
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