In this keenly argued book, the authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization.

Over the past two decades, another form of economic exchange besides imports and exports has risen to a level of vastly greater significance and political concern: the purchase and sale of financial assets across borders.

CFR Director of International Economics Benn Steil argues that the "Volcker rule" ban on bank proprietary trading won't prevent financial crises, and that the troubled effort to implement it should be abandoned in favor of controls on bank leverage.

Benn Steil's New York Times op-ed reveals the spy-thriller history of America's claim on the World Bank's top job.

Benn Steil's Financial Times op-ed shows that whereas the impact of the "Buffett Rule" on Warren Buffett's tax liability is trivial, the political capital he has accrued appears to be leveraging his investments.

Benn Steil's Financial News column analyzes the disproportionate impact the housing bust has had on young adults, explaining why this is likely to act as a long-term drag on the economy.

Benn Steil's Forbes op-ed takes a critical look at the economics behind the Obama Administration's free-contraception insurance mandate.

Benn Steil's Wall Street Journal op-ed argues that the Fed's recent 3-year low interest rate pledge, combined with an inflation target below current inflation levels, is misguided, given its persistently poor track record with economic forecasting.

Benn Steil's Forbes op-ed explains why central banks, in spite of their money-printing powers, ultimately need real capital.

Benn Steil's Financial News column explains why the ECB is incapable of taking Fed-size risks to its balance sheet as long as Germany is willing to contemplate its ultimate liquidation.

CFR's Benn Steil discusses the ECB's role and limitations in mitigating the eurozone debt crisis.

Benn Steil's column in the October 10th edition of Dow Jones' Financial News takes a critical look at popular European calls for a new "Marshall Plan."

Benn Steil and Paul Swartz look at the dangers of the European Central Bank's ever-deeper forays into fiscal policy and credit allocation.

Benn Steil's column in Dow Jones' Financial News takes a critical look at the Washington debt duel.

Benn Steil's column in the July 11 edition of Dow Jones' Financial News takes a tour of the globe—from Stockholm to Sydney and Frankfurt to Washington—and shows why it is a dangerous delusion to believe that central banks can remedy our economic ills.

Benn Steil testifies before the Senate on the importance of regulatory reforms to make U.S. markets more resilient to the failures of individual financial institutions. He argues that well capitalized and regulated central derivatives clearinghouses have historically provided the best example of successful "safe-fail" risk management in the derivatives industry.

Benn Steil's op-ed in the May 24th edition of the Financial Times, co-authored with Manuel Hinds, examines what it would mean for the United States to be obliged to function, like most of the world, without an internationally accepted money. They show why the U.S. not being able to pay its foreign debts in conjured currency would, contrary to Paul Krugman's view, be a big deal.

Benn Steil's April column in Dow Jones' Financial News, co-authored with Paul Swartz, argues that the White House OMB's growth forecasts are systematically biased upwards, and that using the lower private or CBO growth assumptions results in about $1.75 trillion more debt over the next ten years than is implied by the president's recent budget.

Benn Steil's February column in Dow Jones' Financial News looks at last week's two big proposed transatlantic exchange mergers, arguing that, unlike the earlier round of high-profile tie-ups (when large takeover premiums were paid), these are being driven by recognition that all the big bourses are becoming uncompetitive in their once-core equity trading businesses.

Benn Steil's op-ed for Project Syndicate argues that the United States and Europe are putting the credibility of the Fed and the ECB at risk by relying on extraordinary central bank interventions as a substitute for resolving the bad assets dragging down private sector banks.

Benn Steil's January column in Dow Jones' Financial News, co-authored with Paul Swartz, argues that the German-led Irish bailout is floundering because the Irish public balance sheet cannot absorb further Irish bank debt.  Until the inevitable losses on this debt are finally allocated, largely to other European banks, investors will continue to be wary of holding any assets which could conceivably bear the brunt of such losses.

Benn Steil's October column in Dow Jones' Financial News argues that treating the symptoms rather than the causes of the current economic anemia will result in the same unbalanced and unsustainable recovery that followed the post-tech-bubble slump.