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Benn Steil

Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics

Expertise

International finance; financial markets; economic policy.

Programs

Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies

Featured Publications

Money, Markets, and Sovereignty

Money, Markets, and Sovereignty

Authors: Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds

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.

Financial Statecraft

Financial Statecraft

Authors: Benn Steil and Robert E. Litan

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.

All Publications

Testimony

Derivatives Clearinghouses: Opportunities and Challenges

Author: Benn Steil

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.

See more in Economics, Financial Crises

Op-Ed

Keynesians are complacent about the dollar

Authors: Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds
Financial Times

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.

See more in Economics

Op-Ed

Obama Budget Ducks Spending Cuts

Authors: Benn Steil and Paul Swartz
Financial News

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.

See more in Economics

Op-Ed

Big Bourse Mergers are Back, But Hold the Hyperbole

Author: Benn Steil
Financial News

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.

See more in Economics

Op-Ed

Washed Away on the QE2

Author: Benn Steil
Project Syndicate

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.

See more in Economics, Financial Crises

Op-Ed

When Irish IOUs are Smouldering

Authors: Benn Steil and Paul Swartz
Financial News

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.

See more in Economics, Financial Crises

Op-Ed

Bye-Bye to the Fed-Funds Rate

Authors: Benn Steil and Paul Swartz
Wall Street Journal

Benn Steil and Paul Swartz's op-ed in the August 19 edition of the Wall Street Journal explains why the Fed must give up control over the setting of the Fed funds rate--or indeed any interest rate--in order to implement its announced exit strategy. But they argue that evidence from the eurozone suggests strongly that the Fed will be unwilling to relinquish control over rates.

See more in United States, EU, Economics, Financial Crises

Op-Ed

Lessons From the 1930s for a Rising Renminbi

Author: Benn Steil
Financial Times

Benn Steil's op-ed in the June 23rd edition of the Financial Times explains why FDR's Treasury in the 1930s cajoled the Chinese to peg to the dollar, in stark contrast to Obama's Treasury today, which wants the peg ended.  The ambition the two administrations shared is a weaker dollar.

See more in International Finance