Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity

A strong U.S. dollar reflects economic and political strength for the United States. But a new study published in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity illustrates how a strong dollar might not be good for other countries, especially emerging and developing markets. On this episode of the Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, Brookings Senior Fellow Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti interviews the authors of that study, Maurice Obstfeld of UC Berkeley and Haonan Zhou of Princeton University. Obstfeld and Zhou explain what’s driving the stronger dollar, why it might hurt emerging markets, and policies those emerging markets can use to become more resilient to dollar appreciation shocks.

Show notes and transcript: https://brook.gs/3V8KjqT

The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].

The COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments were not the first time the federal government has provided fiscal support to Americans during a crisis, but they did have a different purpose. The goal wasn’t to stimulate the economy but rather to offer “pandemic insurance”—money to pay bills and buy food for people who may have lost income due to the pandemic. In the latest episode of the Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, Hamilton Project Director Wendy Edelberg and MIT finance professor Jonathan A. Parker discuss Parker’s recent BPEA study on how those payments were spent (or not spent) and the on-going impact on the economy.

Show notes and transcript: https://brook.gs/3zv6rmi

The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there was a heated debate in Germany about whether to embargo the import of Russian natural gas as a sanction against Russia’s aggression. Before Germany could act, Russian began cutting the flow of gas to Germany, eventually halting it entirely. On this episode of the Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, Benjamin Moll and Georg Zachmann talk with Economic Studies Director Ben Harris about how Germany navigated this tense situation, as well as their prior work that helped spur the "Great German Gas Debate."

Show notes and transcript

The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].

Since 2022, Western nations have put a number of sanctions on Russia in response to its war in Ukraine. Policymakers and pundits have debated the efficacy of these measures, but this debate is belied by a deeper question: what does it mean for sanctions to “work”? In new BPEA research, Oleg Itskhoki of Harvard and Elina Ribakova of the Peterson Institute for International Economics explore fundamental questions of the theory and practice of sanctions in the Russia context. On this episode of the Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity, Ben Harris, director of Economic Studies at Brookings, joins the authors for a discussion on what’s next for Russia and developing a doctrine of economic statecraft.

Show notes and transcript

The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].

In the mid-20th century, U.S. states experienced recessions very differently from one another, which resulted in many workers migrating between states in search of work. But a newly developed dataset shows that economic recoveries have begun to look very similar across states in recent decades. On this episode, Senior Fellow Louise Sheiner talks with Andrew Fieldhouse and David Munro, authors of a new BPEA study that produced this dataset, “The emergence of a uniform business cycle in the United States.” Their conversation with Sheiner explores the reasons behind the convergence in recession recovery and the policy implications.

Show notes and transcript

The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].