Dollar & Sense: The Brookings Trade Podcast

Caitlin Welsh, director of the Global Food and Water Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), reviews global food insecurity, noting that malnourishment extends beyond just hotspot countries, potentially affecting over 40% of people worldwide. She discusses shocks that have affected food security and agricultural trade, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, COVID-19, and India’s restriction on ...

Ryan Hass, newly appointed director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, talks with host David Dollar about the themes and ideas the China Center will be focusing on in the next few years. Hass also reviews the state of U.S.-China relations under the Biden administration, how domestic politics—including Taiwan’s—matter in the U.S.-China competition, and his vision of a best case scenario for U.S.-China...

Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at Brookings, talks with David Dollar about whether we can attribute the growing number of extreme weather events and disasters to climate change. Gross says global temperature rise makes these events more likely, but also notes that international cooperation to reduce carbon is having a positive effect on average temperature rise.

Show notes and transcript

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently visited China and met with senior Chinese economic and political officials. Mark Sobel, U.S. chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, reflects on her trip, and says U.S.-China dialogue on economic and other global issues is imperative. “I believe that if the world’s two largest economies … aren’t talking,” Sobel says, “whether they agree or not, that’s a very ...

Wendy Edelberg, senior fellow and director of The Hamilton Project at Brookings, discusses the positive impact of immigration on the dynamism and fiscal sustainability of the U.S. economy. She also explains her research on the impact immigrants have on local, state, and federal finances. As a whole, immigrants are a net benefit to the U.S. economy, but based largely on immigrants’ education levels, the fiscal cost is disproportiona...

In the week of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State Visit to the U.S., Tanvi Madan, senior fellow in Foreign Policy and director of the India Project at Brookings, discusses the state of U.S.-India relations, a strategic technology partnership between the two countries, and how global issues like the Russia-Ukraine war and China factor into the relationship. Madan also looks ahead to India’s objectives when it hosts the next ...

David Wessel, senior fellow and director of the Hutchins Center on fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings, joins host David Dollar to discuss what’s in the debt ceiling deal reached between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The deal, signed into law by the president on June 2, averts a debt default that was expected as early as June 5. Wessel explains the deal’s broad provisions, it’s impact on fiscal policy, and w...

Mireya Solís, director of the Center for East Asian Policy Studies at Brookings, explains the significance of Japan hosting the G7 summit in Hiroshima, and how Tokyo centers its foreign policy on promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region. “This is Japan’s grand strategy,” Solís says, “this is really the roadmap that Japan has charted to achieve its security and prosperity.”

Show notes and transcript: https://bit.ly/3VWzObg

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Tao Wang, chief China economist for UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong, discusses her new book, Making Sense of China’s Economy (Routledge). She describes market-oriented and land reforms that helped diminish China’s state role in the economy, increased foreign investment, and increased urbanization. “China understands,” she says, “that opening China’s economy, being integrated with the world, has been tremendously beneficial for the...

Brookings Senior Fellows Richard Bush and Ryan Hass, co-authors with Bonnie Glaser of a new Brookings Press book on U.S.-Taiwan relations in the context of China’s challenge, argue that tensions between the PRC and Taiwan can only be resolved with the assent of Taiwan’s people. Taiwan’s presidential election result in 2024 will also affect how much pressure Beijing applies to cross-Taiwan Strait relations, they explain.

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Donald Kohn, senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings and a former Federal Reserve vice chair, discusses why Silicon Valley Bank failed, what regulators did before and after the bank’s collapse, and whether or not this event could signal additional global financial problems in the future.

Show notes and transcript: https://bit.ly/3nK60Bo

Dollar & Sense is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Learn more at brookings.edu/podc...

A team of Brookings experts has just released the “Ukraine Index,” which presents security, economic, and political data to track the war’s course. One of the authors of the Index, Constanze Stelzenmüller, who directs the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings, joins host David Dollar to discuss the Index and the latest data on Ukraine’s economic, security, and humanitarian conditions.

Show notes and transcript: https:...

Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow in Global Economy and Development at Brookings and a professor at Cornell University, and host David Dollar discuss the outlook for China’s economy in 2023 as the annual National People’s Congress convenes in Beijing. Discussion topics include China’s economic growth, local finance and real estate, the role of China’s private sector in the economy, and what policies might emerge from the meeting.

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Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director of the Economist Intelligence Unit, speaks with host David Dollar about her new book, Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests (Columbia University Press). In the conversation, Demarais explains why sanctions are a frequent U.S. foreign policy tool, why sanctions are often ineffective, and how China and Russia are developing ways to circumvent sanctions.

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Ted Piccone, a nonresident senior fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings and also senior advisor with the World Justice Project, talks with host David Dollar about Brazil’s challenges facing President Lula after the January 8 insurrection in Brasilia by followers of outgoing President Bolsonaro. Discussion topics include economic conditions, protecting the Amazon, regional and global trade dynamics, Brazil’s role in BRICS, and China...

On January 19, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed Congress that the department would implement “extraordinary measures” to allow the federal government to meet its obligations after reaching the debt ceiling. David Dollar speaks with Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow in Governance Studies, about the politics of the debt ceiling debate in Congress, including what leverage far right Republicans may have gained during the Spe...

Host David Dollar and Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, a senior fellow in Economic Studies, anticipate key trends in the U.S. and global economies. What’s the inflation picture and forecast for growth in the U.S.? What economic conditions will prevail in Europe, China, and Latin America? And what can poor, low-income, and emerging economies expect in the new year?

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David Dollar speaks with Aloysius Ordu, senior fellow and director of the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings, on the outcomes of the recent U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Ordu, host of “Foresight Africa” podcast, describes the summit’s objectives, speaks to trade and investment issues, public health, and the new positive attitude from the White House toward the region.

Show notes and transcript: https://brook.gs/3j9uOAP 

Dollar & S...

David Dollar speaks with Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross, about the economic implications for a country hosting the World Cup tournament. Prof. Matheson, author of a recent paper, “The Economics of the World Cup,” discusses the costs and benefits for the host country, whether sports stadiums generate economic activity, the impact on tourism, and FIFA’s role in organizing the quadrennial ev...