Brad W. Setser

Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow

Expert Bio

Brad W. Setser is the Whitney Shepardson senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His expertise includes global trade and capital flows, financial vulnerability analysis, and sovereign debt restructuring. He regularly blogs at Follow the Money.

Setser served as a senior advisor to the United States Trade Representative from 2021 to 2022, where he worked on the resolution of a number of trade disputes. He had previously served as the deputy assistant secretary for international economic analysis in the U.S. Treasury from 2011 to 2015, where he worked on Europe’s financial crisis, currency policy, financial sanctions, commodity shocks, and Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, and as a director for international economics on the staff of the National Economic Council and the National Security Council.

He is the author of Sovereign Wealth and Sovereign Power (CFR, 2008) and the coauthor, with Nouriel Roubini, of Bailouts and Bail-ins: Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Economies (Peterson Institute, 2004). His work has been published in Foreign Affairs, Finance and Development, Global Governance and Georgetown Journal of International Law, among others.

Setser was a senior fellow at CFR from 2016 to 2020, a fellow from 2007 to 2009, and an international affairs fellow in 2003. He also has been a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund. He holds a BA from Harvard University, a masters from Sciences-Po Paris, and an MA and PhD in international relations from Oxford University.

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Economics

Global Growth Tracker: World Economies by GDP

This tracker charts the economic growth performance through time of ninety-one countries around the globe.

Article by Benn Steil July 20, 2022 Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies

Emerging Markets

What Role Should the IMF Play in Responding to COVID-19?

Right now the bulk of the IMF's lending capacity likely won't be used in the face of the economic, financial, and public health shock from COVID-19. Mobilizing the IMF's lending capacity likely will require a new facility. The Short-term Liquidity Line created this spring isn't actually well suited for the moment.

Blog Post by Brad W. Setser June 10, 2020 Follow the Money

COVID-19

Why Countries Are Giving People Cash Amid the Pandemic

The United States is not alone in giving millions of people stimulus checks. Dozens of countries are also using cash transfer programs to help people cope with the pandemic’s economic toll.

In Brief by Lindsay Maizland May 5, 2020

Expert Bio

Media Inquiries

Follow the Money

Brad Setser tracks cross-border flows, with a bit of macroeconomics thrown in.

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