The New Economic Nationalism

Monica de Bolle

Economist, Senior Fellow
Peterson Institute for International Economics

At Busboys & Poets, 450K St 

Empires, city states, and nations have long pursued aggressive trade, tax, and investment policies to amass wealth. A new consensus emerged after the Great Depression and World War II supporting liberalized international trade, economic cooperation, and free markets. Today that consensus has shattered, replaced by a “new economic nationalism” of industrial policy, tariffs, and various methods of state support for the economy. Can this new approach deliver stability, national security, and prosperity?

Dr. Monica De Bolle examines case studies revealing a decidedly mixed record. In some instances, economic nationalist policies have fostered growth and declining unemployment, though accompanied by fiscal costs and inefficiency. In much of the developing world, however, economic nationalist policies have produced corruption, debt burdens, inflation, and ultimately stagnation. By examining the past, De Bolle provides a roadmap to an uncertain future.

Time will be allocated for Q&A.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Monica de Bolle is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics since January 2017. She is the host of Policy for the Planet, a podcast about economics, public health, and climate adaptation. De Bolle is a former director for Latin American studies and emerging markets at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and was a nonresident senior fellow at the Institute between March 2015 and January 2017.

Named as "Honored Economist" in 2014 by the Order of Brazilian Economists for her contributions to the Brazilian policy debate, de Bolle focuses on macroeconomics, foreign exchange policy, monetary and fiscal policy, trade and inequality, financial regulation, and capital markets. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has also expanded into public health research and has specialized in immunology, genetics, and biochemistry at Harvard Medical School. De Bolle obtained an advanced graduate degree in infectious diseases and human immunology at Georgetown University in 2022.

Prior to joining the Institute, de Bolle was professor of macroeconomics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, as well as managing partner of Galanto | MBB Consultants, a macroeconomics advisory firm. She was also a director of the Institute for Economic Policy Research (IEPE/Casa das Garças), a prestigious think tank based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and an economist at the International Monetary Fund.

De Bolle has authored and coauthored a number of books on the global economy and Brazil's policy challenges, including How to Kill the Blue Butterfly: A Chronicle of the Dilma Era (2016), The State of the World Economy, Challenges and Responses: Essays in Honor of Pedro S. Malan (2014), The Future of Brazilian Manufacturing: The Deindustrialization Debate (2013), New Dilemmas in Economic Policy (2011), Financial Regulation Reform in the US: New Global Architecture and the Brazilian Regulatory Context (2009), and How to Respond to the Global Financial Crisis? Economic Policies for Brazil (2009).

Her views on Brazil's economy and economic policy have been published widely by the international and Brazilian media. She contributes regularly to major Brazilian newspapers Exame, O Globo and O Estado de São Paulo.

De Bolle obtained her BA in economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and holds a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.