Dollar & Sense: The Brookings Trade Podcast

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. Aaronson offers several policy reforms the U.S. could pursue to make work more family friendly. She also explains how recent changes at the Federal Reserve aim to achieve more inclusive growth. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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 reshoring their manufacturing and value chains. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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 joins David Dollar to make the case for openness and recommend complementary policies that would ensure the benefits of globalization are evenly shared. Clausing is the author of “Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital.”

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 Pops. Orlik joins David Dollar in this episode to discuss China’s economic growth model, the potential for reforms, and how the economy has responded to the trade war and COVID-19. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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 agriculture and manufacturing – offer particularly high potential returns, and he details the trends that should leave us all optimistic about the potential for Africa’s long-term economic growth. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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 Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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 and the United States. Dollar and Petri are both contributors to a new book, "China 2049," focused on how China may reform as it seeks to become the world’s next economic superpower. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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 senior fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at Brookings.   Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

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 director of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, joins David Dollar to explain the legal obstacles any case would face and why these plans could backfire. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.