How Markets Think About Monetary & Fiscal Policy
This talk by Brett House is part of our Fall 2019 Policy Lecture series. These academic talks are intended for McGill graduate students and faculty.
Policymakers, the public, and investors often think they communicate clearly with and to each other, but, instead, they often talk past each other. This discussion will review some notable cases where gaps have developed between officials, everyday citizens, and markets, and contrast them against instances where these economic stakeholders have heard each other clearly, with a view to helping future policymakers bridge this potential gap more effectively.
About Brett House
Brett House is a macroeconomist who writes on sovereign debt, international finance, development aid, trade, and growth. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Jeanne Sauvé Foundation in Montréal, a Visiting Scholar at Massey College, University of Toronto, and an Advisor to Tau Investment Management, a New York-based impact fund.
Prior to returning to Canada, Brett was Global Strategist at Woodbine Capital Advisors, a global macro hedge fund; Principal Advisor on economic and financial issues in the Executive Office of the United Nations’ Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon; and Senior Macroeconomist at The Earth Institute at Columbia University. He earlier spent seven formative years fighting financial crises and working on debt relief for low-income countries at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC. Brett cut his teeth as an economist in junior roles at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs. He studied economics at Oxford, Cape Town, St Andrews and Queen’s as a Rhodes and Rotary Scholar, and taught at Oxford, Cape Town and McGill.
Brett’s research and analysis has been published in a range of academic journals and popular press, and he is a frequent commentator in Canadian and international media on economic issues. He is a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum, a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an alumnus Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Brett is originally from Vineland Station, Ontario.
