Protectionism is Failing and Wrongheaded: An Evaluation of the Post-2017 Shift toward Trade Wars and Industrial Policy
This paper evaluates the shift towards increasingly protectionist and nationalist policies carried out by the past two presidential administrations. In this paper, Michael Strain argues that the turn to such economic policies has not only been ineffective by its own standards, failing to raise employment and reduce America’s reliance on China, but also is more ...
State Capacity for Building Infrastructure
This paper, by Zachary Liscow, examines state capacity for infrastructure construction in the United States. It identifies three elements of state capacity that drive up costs and slow down timelines: insufficient personnel, onerous procedures, and a lack of adequate tools. Liscow offers specific suggestions about ways to address these challenges and improve US public capacity ...
Strengthening America’s Economic Dynamism
The Aspen Economic Strategy Group’s seventh annual policy volume focuses on the theme, Strengthening America’s Economic Dynamism. The volume’s publication comes at a time when US policymakers are turning away from free-market principles in favor of protectionist policies and more active government-directed industrial policy. These shifts, combined with growing economic and political difficulties including the ...
Top 12 Charts of 2024 from the AESG
As a group devoted to advancing evidence-based economic policy, the AESG appreciates the powerful role that charts play in telling the story of our economy. Enjoy twelve figures that showcase our work in 2024! Figure 1: Manufacturing’s share of employment in the US has fallen consistently since the end of the Second World War. In ...
Aspen Economic Strategy Group Welcomes New Members
Aspen Economic Strategy Group Welcomes New Members Leading policymakers, business executives, and academics join bipartisan group dedicated to promoting evidence-based solutions to America’s economic challenges. WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 12, 2025 – The Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) today announced that eleven new members have joined the bipartisan group of distinguished leaders and thinkers who are ...
Ruth Porat
RURTH PORAT is President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google with responsibility for the Company’s corporate investments and investment vehicles, including GV and CapG, the Other Bets investment portfolio, Real Estate and Workplace Services, and other Company infrastructure. The role includes engaging with policymakers and regulators globally about the Company’s business and impact ...
Michael Froman
MIKE FROMAN is President of the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as vice chairman and president, Strategic Growth at Mastercard and chairman of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. From 2013 to 2017, Mike served as the U.S. Trade Representative, President Barack Obama’s principal advisor and negotiator on international trade and investment issues. ...
Rob Portman
ROB PORTMAN’S career in public service has spanned three decades and included service in three presidential administrations, as well as two terms in the United States Senate and six terms in the United States House of Representatives. In the George W. Bush administration, he served in two cabinet-level jobs, as Director of the Office of Management and ...
Brian Deese
BRIAN DEESE is the Institute Innovation Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focuses on U.S. economic policy, industrial capacity, clean energy, and innovation. Deese was previously Director of the White House National Economic Council, where he coordinated the economic agenda of the Biden‐Harris Administration and advised President Biden on domestic and ...