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.
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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
Benn Steil's column in Dow Jones' Financial News, co-authored with Dinah Walker, provides new evidence highlighting the endemic flaws in LIBOR as both a benchmark for setting market lending rates and a central-bank metric for judging policy effectiveness.
See more in Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, International Finance
Benn Steil's New York Times op-ed reveals the spy-thriller history of America's claim on the World Bank's top job.
See more in International Finance, World Bank
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.
See more in United States, Geoeconomics, International Finance, Congress, Presidency
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.
See more in United States, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, Society and Culture
Benn Steil's Forbes op-ed takes a critical look at the economics behind the Obama Administration's free-contraception insurance mandate.
See more in United States, Economics, Health, Science, and Technology, Children, Drugs, Health, Population, Presidency
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.
See more in United States, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, International Finance
Benn Steil's Forbes op-ed explains why central banks, in spite of their money-printing powers, ultimately need real capital.
See more in EU, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics, International Finance
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.
See more in EU, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics
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."
See more in EU, Financial Crises, Geoeconomics
Benn Steil and Paul Swartz look at the dangers of the European Central Bank's ever-deeper forays into fiscal policy and credit allocation.
See more in EU, Financial Crises
Benn Steil's column in Dow Jones' Financial News takes a critical look at the Washington debt duel.
See more in Financial Crises, Geoeconomics
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.
See more in Financial Crises
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.
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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.
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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.
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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 Financial Crises
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 Financial Crises
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.
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Benn Steil's September column in Dow Jones' Financial News argues that the "Volcker Rule" will not make insured deposits safer or crises less likely, as traditional bank lending creates riskier maturity mismatches than securities trading.
See more in Financial Crises, International Finance
Benn Steil takes a satirical look at high-frequency trading.
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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.