Dollar & Sense: The Brookings Trade Podcast

The 2020 election has revealed deep divisions in the United States and questions about what binds Americans together, but this is not the first time the country has experienced extreme polarization. Marvin Kalb, a senior fellow at Brookings and veteran journalist, joins David Dollar to explain how the current moment compares to other eras in American history. Dollar and Kalb also discuss how Ameri...

President Trump's critiques of U.S. trade policy are well known. He frequently lambasts 'bad deals' that favor America's trading partners, and since taking office he has tried to use tariffs and new trade agreements to reduce the trade deficit and bring back manufacturing jobs. So, how have his policies affected American workers? What impact did President Trump's tariffs have on important swing st...

The exchange of data and digital services has become a new frontier for U.S.-China competition. To discuss the scale of digital services trade and the United States' attempts to regulate it through trade agreements, David Dollar is joined by Joshua P. Meltzer, a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. Meltzer is the author of a new paper for Brookings's Global Chi...

The person elected president of the United States this November will have enormous influence over America's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated recession. To discuss the differences in how President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden approach these issues, and lessons from the first presidential debate, David Dollar is joined by William A. Galston, a senior fellow in Gov...

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has served as the finance minister of Nigeria, the managing director of the World Bank, and she is currently a candidate for the director-general position at the World Trade Organization. She joins David Dollar in this episode to discuss the role trade plays in global development and what she would prioritize as director-general. Okonjo-Iweala is a nonresident distinguished fel...

The United States' economy is beginning to recover from the COVID-19 recession, but there's still a lot of progress yet to be made. Ahead of Labor Day, Stephanie Aaronson, the vice president and director of Economic Studies at Brookings, joins David Dollar to discuss what new employment data can tell us about how various sectors and demographic groups are experiencing the recovery differently. Aar...

Michael Spence is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, leading expert in Industry 4.0, and someone with the opportunity to advise the Chinese government. He joins this episode of Dollar & Sense to discuss global technology competition and how emerging technologies will affect the future of economic development.   Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@B...

In this episode of Dollar & Sense, we flip the format and ask host David Dollar what new data can tell us about how the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated recession are affecting U.S. trade. Dollar shares insights on which industries have been hit hardest, how the recession will alter the U.S. trade deficit and the phase one trade deal with China, and the likelihood American companies begin resh...

Globalization has earned a bad reputation in the United States for contributing to many of the challenges that American workers face. Rather than trying to reverse globalization with more protectionism, a position that's gained traction in Washington, Reed College Professor Kimberly Clausing argues the U.S. should pursue policies that directly help workers, like wage insurance and tax reform. She...

China's buildup of debt to fuel economic growth has raised fears of an eventual collapse. So, what factors would precipitate such a collapse? And if one were to occur, how would it affect the rest of the world? How can Chinese policymakers guard against financial crisis? These are questions that Bloomberg Economics chief economist Tom Orlik takes up in his new book, China: The Bubble That Never Po...

In his new book "Unlocking Africa's Business Potential," Landry Signé shows why Africa is ripe for business investment, citing fast-growing consumer and business spending, improved political stability and business environments, regional integration, and a burgeoning youth population eager to capitalize on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Signé joins David Dollar to explain which sectors – like ag...

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) joins David Dollar to discuss today's pressing issues in global trade, including the security of Hong Kong, U.S.-China economic relationship, and implementation of the USMCA. Sen. Carper emphasizes the need for bipartisan solutions to meet these challenges and argues that Congress should reclaim its authority over shaping trade policy.   Dollar and Sense is a part of the...

China's technological rise has led to anxiety in the United States over the possibility that China will dominate technologies of the future – but is there any merit to those concerns? Peter Petri, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and professor of International Finance at the Brandeis International Business School, joins David Dollar to provide an overview of technology competition between...

China's legislature, the National People's Congress, recently voted to prepare national security legislation that will impose new restrictions on Hong Kong and may threaten the civil and political rights of the people there. To explain what led to this recent escalation and the implications for Hong Kong's "special status" under U.S. law, David Dollar is joined by Richard Bush, a nonresident senio...

Members of Congress and the Trump administration have been outspoken in their calls to hold China accountable for the human and economic costs of the coronavirus – likely through lawsuits filed in U.S. courts. But is suing China for compensation legally viable? How would it affect other American interests around the world and the U.S.-China economic relationship? Robert Williams, the executive dir...

As countries around the world fall into a recession due to the coronavirus, what effects will this economic downturn have on Africa? Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly joins David Dollar to explain the economic strain from falling commodity prices, remittances, and tourism, and also the consequences of a recent G-20 decision to temporarily suspend debt service payments for Africa's poorest countries. Cou...

The coronavirus pandemic has sent crude oil prices plummeting, so much so that the price for West Texas Intermediate oil dropped below zero dollars earlier this week. In this special edition of the podcast, Samantha Gross joins David Dollar to explain the factors influencing recent changes in demand for oil and the long-term effects the coronavirus could have on U.S. oil production and the develop...

In the face of economic and health challenges posed by COVID-19, Congress, an institution often hamstrung by partisanship, quickly passed a series of bills allocating trillions of dollars for economic stimulus and relief. In this episode, Sarah Binder joins David Dollar to discuss the politics behind passing that legislation and lingering uncertainties about its oversight and implementation. Binde...

What effect will the COVID-19 pandemic have on the 9.2 million Americans working in logistics? Adie Tomer joins David Dollar to discuss the geographic distribution of logistics workers, their role in supply chains, the lack of protection for essential workers, and the necessity to create a more equitable social contract for America's labor force. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast...

What effect has COVID-19 had on the Chinese economy and phase one of the U.S.-China deal? Could the United States or other nations draw lessons from China's response to the virus? David Dollar is joined in this episode of Dollar & Sense by Dexter Roberts, former China Bureau Chief for Bloomberg Businessweek, to discuss these and other questions about the economic implications of COVID-19. Roberts,...

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, Warwick J. McKibbin joined us from his home in Australia to discuss how the novel coronavirus may disrupt the global economy. McKibbin, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, authored a recent report outlining seven different scenarios of how COVID-19 might evolve and the implications each scenario would have on macroeconomic outcomes and financ...

After nine years of political conflict in Syria, more than 5.5 million Syrians are now displaced as refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, with more than 3.6 million refugees in Turkey alone. It is unlikely that many of these refugees will be able to return home or resettle in Europe, Canada, or the United States. Attention has therefore turned to how to improve the ability for these refugees to...

In this episode of Dollar & Sense, David Dollar is joined by Tom Keatinge to discuss the ramifications Brexit will have on the United Kingdom's use of financial sanctions and regulation of financial crime. Keatinge, the director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), explains how London currently cooperates with other major financial s...

David Dollar is joined in this special episode of Dollar & Sense by Amanda McClelland, the senior vice president of the Prevent Epidemics team at Resolve to Save Lives, to discuss the severity of the Wuhan coronavirus and the Chinese response to prevent the disease from spreading. McClelland, who worked on the response to the Ebola crisis, describes the unique threat the coronavirus poses for Afri...

In this episode of Dollar & Sense, Brookings Senior Fellow David Dollar is joined by Lori Ann LaRocco to discuss "phase one" of the trade agreement between China and the U.S. and LaRocco's new book, "Trade War: Containers Don't Lie, Navigating the Bluster." In the discussion and in her book, LaRocco explains how we can better understand the implications of President Trump's tariffs by following tr...