The Real Returns Summit
The Real Returns Summit was a youth-focused economics conference hosted by The Real Returns Show, bringing students into direct conversation with leading economists, policymakers, business leaders, and public thinkers. Held virtually across three weekends, the Summit featured moderated conversations and student Q&A sessions with Soumaya Keynes, Edward Snyder, and Narayana Kocherlakota. Through these sessions, students explored major economic questions around markets, policy, institutions, leadership, and the forces shaping the economy they are entering. The goal of the Summit was to give students a forum usually reserved for universities, think tanks, and professional conferences: a place to ask serious questions, engage with leading thinkers, and see economics not just as a classroom subject, but as a way to understand the world around them.
The Real Returns Summit: Narayana Kocherlakota
Professor Narayana Kocherlakota is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester and former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, where he participated in monetary policymaking following the 2008 financial crisis. In this Real Returns Summit conversation, he discussed the relationship between economic theory and real-world policy, the evolution of his views on interest rates and unemployment, forward guidance, quantitative easing, the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate, policymaking under uncertainty, and the importance of judgment, humility, and intellectual flexibility in economics.
The Real Returns Summit: Professor Edward Snyder
Professor Edward “Ted” Snyder is the William S. Beinecke Professor of Economics and Management at the Yale School of Management and former Dean of Yale School of Management, Chicago Booth, and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. In this Real Returns Summit conversation, he discussed competition, innovation, and how economists analyze real-world markets, drawing on examples from the NASCAR–Michael Jordan case, Deflategate, sports leagues, the global semiconductor industry, industrial policy, and higher education’s role in preparing students for a rapidly changing economy.
The Real Returns Summit: Soumaya Keynes
Soumaya Keynes is an economics columnist at the Financial Times, host of The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes, and co-author of How to Win a Trade War. In this Real Returns Summit conversation, she discussed economic journalism, tariffs, globalization, supply chains, trade wars, industrial policy, and how economists and journalists communicate uncertainty. She also previewed her new book, explaining why trade policy has become one of the central economic debates shaping markets, politics, and the global economy.