Baker Briefing

In late July, Venezuela’s electoral authority declared President Nicolás Maduro had won reelection — a result the opposition says was blatantly manipulated. The results were also denounced by the U.S., the E.U., and a number of Latin American countries. On this episode of Baker Briefing, Francisco Monaldi discusses what the post-election chaos means for the country’s troubled oil sector and U.S. p...

In early July, Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Houston as a Category 1 storm. The city’s flooding infrastructure held up, but thousands were without power for over a week in the brutal summer heat.   On this episode of the Baker Briefing podcast, Jim Blackburn , a faculty scholar at the Baker Institute and co-director of Rice’s SSPEED Center , joined fellow Ed Emmett to discuss the impacts of B...

Masoud Pezeshkian’s victory in Iran’s presidential election on July 5 was, in many ways, surprising: The parliamentarian is a relative moderate who has pledged to engage with the West and criticized the harassment of women by Iran’s morality police. But will his reformist views translate to meaningful change? Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar and Kristian Coates Ulrichsen joined the podcast to talk about...

A slowing inflation rate, low unemployment, and record stock market highs all point to a robust economy. But are consumers really better off than they were four years ago? On this episode of the Baker Briefing podcast, Center for Public Finance director John Diamond explains why many aren’t feeling the benefits of an economy that’s strong on paper.   This conversation was recorded on June 27, 2024...

The U.S. federal government ran a deficit of $1.7 trillion in 2023. This year, net interest payments on the debt alone amount to over $800 billion — more than the country’s entire defense budget.   John Diamond , director of the Baker Institute Center for Public Finance , explains what’s driving the rising debt level, why it’s unsustainable, and why there’s no end in sight without comprehensive fi...

On June 2, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected to Mexico’s highest office. A climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum will now become the first woman president in the country’s history.  Her victory is part of a resounding win for the ruling Morena party and its allies, which gained a congressional majority in the elections. Now, the Mexican left may be able to reshape the country’s...

Experts examine the evolving global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, including the implications of the recent U.S. halt in the review of LNG export applications, how conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have disrupted the market, and the challenges that a “re-Balkanization” of the natural gas industry would pose in the face of global shocks. For more insights, read a related article from the...

In December 2023, China released a set of proposed regulations on its video gaming industry. The regulations would have targeted many of the most common monetization features in video games — like daily log-in rewards, bonuses for first-time users of in-game currencies, and “loot boxes,” a kind of randomized prize draw that some liken to legalized gambling. But then something happened: The release...

On May 19, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died suddenly in a helicopter accident. Experts share what policy direction they expect Iran to take in the aftermath of Raisi’s death and what reactions they anticipate from the Gulf. Discussants Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar Fellow for the Middle East, Baker Institute Kristian Coates Ulrichsen Fellow for the Middle East and Co-Director, Middle East Energy...

In this episode of Baker Briefing, experts explore the future of fuels for passenger and freight mobility. The episode is part of an initiative by the Center for Energy Studies investigating the supply chain and cost implications of transitioning fuels across the transportation sector — the economy’s circulatory system. A transcript of the episode is available here . This text was AI-generated and...