Real Interest Rates and Fiscal Prudence 

Ken Rogoff joins Steve Davis at Jackson Hole to discuss our limited understanding of real interest rates, the risks associated with high government debt levels, and what it all means for the conduct of fiscal policy. They also discuss how the external political environment and incentives within the economics profession can, and did, lead to imprudent advice about fiscal policy from leading professional economists.

Recorded on August 28, 2026.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kenneth Rogoff is Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics at Harvard, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, chess grandmaster, and author of many influential works, including his highly celebrated book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. His 2025 book, Our Dollar: Your Problem, offers a sweeping view of the postwar rise of the dollar and the challenges it presents to the rest of the world. Rogoff is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

RELATED SOURCES

• “Jackson Hole: Economist Rogoff Says a ‘Shock’ Needed to Trigger Action on Debt,” Wall Street Journal, 28 August 2026.
• "Dollar Dominance," with Steven Davis and Kenneth Rogoff, Economics, Applied, 11 June 2025.