Global Conversations ST. PAUL: Trade and Politics

The U.S. political mood toward trade has gone sour. One need look no further than the 2016 presidential contest for the popular narrative: trade means that China wins, at America’s expense. But do the numbers support that conclusion? The metrics used to gauge economic strength—Gross Domestic Product and balance of trade—have not kept up with the realities of modern manufacturing. Obtaining an accurate picture of U.S. economic stature requires a critique of those numbers.

Join us for a lunchtime conversation with Professor Varadarajan V. Chari on the development of appropriate policy solutions for the challenges at hand.

Professor Chari is the founding director of the Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute, the Paul Frenzel Land Grant Professor of Liberal Arts in the University of Minnesota Department of Economics, and an adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He received a bachelor of technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and his Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University. He has served on the Board of Editors of many journals, including Econometrica, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. In 1998, he was elected fellow of the Econometric Society and was named Scholar of the College by the College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, in 2008. His research interests are in banking, fiscal and monetary policy, and on issues of economic development.

Global Conversations in St. Paul is produced in partnership with the Landmark Center.