Maxwell School News

“I think it’s very unlikely that we’ll see China’s trade with the United States, with the European Union, moving into Chinese currency,” says Daniel McDowell, professor of political science. 

Talk of a BRICS common currency is “really a reflection of a desire among some segments of the world to have some counterweight to the U.S., the U.S. economy, the dollar,” says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science. But “I think most of this is just in fantasy land, because I don’t see any world in which it is really going to emerge in the way some people might hope.”

“The Chinese meanwhile are incredibly pragmatic, and they’ll certainly consider the possibility that the impeachment inquiry is having an effect. They’ll see the president as weakened. That will matter," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely.

"It’s not going to put any of these banks in a good place to have these two big countries duking it out in the midst of their lending programmes," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

"We’ve never seen anything like this," Mary Lovely told the Associated Press. Lovely recently spoke with multiple news outlets about the trade war between the U.S. and China.  

U.S. tariffs will “drive up costs for U.S.-based manufacturers and disadvantage American workers competing in global markets,” due to the additional costs they will inject into the supply chain, according to Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

"The economics profession still struggles to be inclusive. But my hope is that one day, when a woman (of whatever height) presents her research, no one will be surprised when she does a stellar job," writes Mary Daly ’91 M.Phil. (Econ)/’94 Ph.D. (Econ).

"In fact all maps lie, even good ones," says Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor of Geography.  A third edition of his book How to Lie With Maps was recently published.

Mary Lovely, professor of economics, says any negotiations to rejoin the Trans Pacific Partnership would probably drag well into next year. As a result they are unlikely to give Mr. Trump any quick political victory in farm states.

Regarding Rex Tillerson’s proposed replacement, Mike Pompeo, William Smullen, director of Maxwell's National Security Studies program, says he would need to restore the morale of "an agency that has been in despair for much of the administration."

"Changes in trade policy in 2017 were small and, in any case, unable to move the needle on the deficit," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely. "If the recent tax cut stimulates spending and business investment in the U.S., as the president hopes, we may well see an even larger deficit for 2018."

"This is potentially a can of worms, and Mueller has opened that can today," says Bill Smullen, director of the National Security Studies program.

"I like to stay on the optimistic side to assume that though this seems to have stalled on the surface, ground work has never stopped," says Yilin Hou, professor of public administration and international affairs. "The Chinese style is, once something is announced, everything has been already done."

Daniel McDowell's research on China's bilateral currency swaps with foreign central banks was referenced in the Financial Times article, "China’s influence on global finance grows as US scales back input."