The Battle of Bretton Woods
A remarkably deft work of storytelling that reveals how the blueprint for the postwar economic order was actually drawn.
See more in International Finance
Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics
International finance; financial markets; economic policy.
A remarkably deft work of storytelling that reveals how the blueprint for the postwar economic order was actually drawn.
See more in International Finance
A fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present exploring why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization.
See more in Economics
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.
See more in Emerging Markets, International Finance, U.S. Strategy and Politics
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The debt crisis that has hammered southern Europe since 2010 will have long-lived economic effects, despite the moderation in Spanish and Italian government borrowing costs since the European Central Bank's "Outright Monetary Transactions" initiative last September.
See more in Western Europe, EU, Economics, Financial Crises, EU, IMF
A remarkably deft work of storytelling that reveals how the blueprint for the postwar economic order was actually drawn.
See more in International Finance
A fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present exploring why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization.
See more in Economics
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.
See more in Emerging Markets, International Finance, U.S. Strategy and Politics
A seminal volume bringing together the research and critical thinking of many of the world's top macro- and micro-economists to provide a unique, multifaceted perspective on the causes of technological innovation and its relationship to economic performance. Through the use of detailed, up-to-date country and industry studies, Technological Innovation and Economic Performance provides the most authoritative and detailed analysis of this topic ever assembled.
See more in Economic Development, Technology Transfer
Institutional Investors is the first and only comprehensive analysis of the global economic impact of the institutionalization of savings associated with the growth of pension funds, life insurance companies, and mutual funds. It charts the development and performance of the asset management industry and analyzes the implications of rising institutionalized saving for the development of the securities trading industry, the financial sector as a whole, and the wider economy.
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Leading experts elucidate the changing nature of antitrust enforcement on both sides of the Atlantic, with a keen eye to future multilateral, as well as bilateral, developments.
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In this report, Benn Steil shows that the financial crisis is the inevitable bust of a classic credit boom, and explains how monetary, taxation, and home ownership promotion policy combined with other features of the financial system to fuel an unsustainable buildup in debt. He recommends significant reforms to reverse the debt financing bias and make the system more resilient to falls in asset prices. This report is also available in Arabic.
See more in Financial Crises, International Finance
CFR's Benn Steil says the dollar's continuing decline could result in higher prices for major imports like energy and, in a worst-case scenario, might lead to higher inflation and interest rates.
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CFR’s Benn Steil examines proposals for a regulatory overhaul of the U.S. financial system put forth by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
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Benn Steil's op-ed for Paul Solman's PBS The Business Desk site looks critically at calls for "a new Bretton Woods." He argues that many of the critical precepts behind the 1944 American Bretton Woods blueprint were overturned by the Truman Administration a mere three years later, and that the operation of the Bretton Woods monetary system was far briefer and more troubled than is typically reckoned.
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Benn Steil and Dinah Walker explain why the Fed's massive holdings of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are distorting its thinking about the conduct of monetary policy going forward. They propose a novel plan to rectify this, in which the Fed swaps its MBS with the Treasury in return for Treasury securities, which the Fed can sell as part of a normal "exit" from monetary stimulus.
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Benn Steil explains in his column for Dow Jones' Financial News why the latest craze in monetary policymaking—targeting nominal output—has no staying power.
See more in Economics, Capital Markets, Geoeconomics, International Finance
Benn Steil's op-ed on Bloomberg Echoes describes the drama surrounding the collapse of dollar-starved Britain's empire in the wake of WWII.
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Benn Steil's Wall Street Journal op-ed explains the unique historical circumstances in which the Bretton Woods international monetary system emerged in 1944, and why calls for "a new Bretton Woods" today will go unsatisfied.
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Benn Steil's Wall Street Journal Europe op-ed, co-authored with Dinah Walker, argues that the Bank of England is getting "Libored"—that is, misled and manipulated—by the banks benefiting from its Funding for Lending Scheme. The Fed, which has shown interest in the scheme, should beware.
See more in United States, U.K., Capital Markets, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, International Finance
Benn Steil's column in Dow Jones' Financial News, co-authored with Dinah Walker, shows why last March's Greek debt restructuring left Greece in poor shape to avoid financial collapse
See more in Greece, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, International Finance
Benn Steil's Forbes op-ed, co-authored with Dinah Walker and Romil Chouhan, shows why President Obama's touting of renewable energy as a job-creator is misguided.
See more in Economic Development, Financial Crises, Labor, Climate Change, Energy, Presidency
Benn Steil's column in Dow Jones' Financial News, co-authored with Dinah Walker, analyzes Mitt Romney's budget math. Without questioning the candidate's assumptions on growth or available sources of revenue, they estimate a roughly $1 trillion annual budget gap.
See more in Geoeconomics, International Finance, Presidency, U.S. Election 2012
New York, New York
CFR Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics
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| Emily Mellgard |
With all the discussion of currency wars, BNN looks at whether establishing a new global monetary order in the fashion of Bretton Woods is ever again possible with Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White and the Making of a New World Order."
The markets enjoyed another strong day thanks to strong economic data, reports CNBC's Seema Mody. Benn Steil, Council on Foreign Relations, and Kyle Harrington, Harrington Capital Management, discuss.
Amanda Lang and Kevin O'Leary take you inside the business world with their trade mark thought-provoking coverage. Benn Steil dicusses the significance of Bretton Woods and why he decided to write a book about the conference. Interview begins at 33:50.