Maxwell School News and Commentary

"My concern would not be economic, it would be political," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely regarding last year's rise in the U.S. trade deficit. “I’m afraid this will be more fuel for an aggressive trade stance toward China, afraid that will lead to retaliation by China, and I think it will cause job destruction in the United States as well as in China.”

Instead of raising tariffs India should have emulated China by reforming labor laws and maintaining a low-tariff regime on intermediate goods to attract export-oriented global manufacturing firms, according to Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

"They raise the already high risk of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, almost certainly to be quickly followed by a carefully targeted Chinese response," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. "Unfortunately, while destructive of jobs both here and in China, these responses will not move the needle on the U.S. trade deficit."

The Mandela Washington Fellowship empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and local community engagement. The cohort of fellows hosted by the Maxwell School will be part of a larger group of 700 Mandela Washington Fellows hosted at 27 institutions across the United States this summer.

Alumnus James M. Harkin ’76 M.S.Sc./’78 Ph.D. (SSc) and his wife, Lucille Boilard-Harkin, have made estate plans that will provide ongoing scholarship support to students in Maxwell’s M.P.A. degree program. The gift will support Maxwell’s Birkhead-Burkhead Fund, of which James Harkin was a founding donor in 1987.

"Capitalist liberal democracies don't have commitments to social rights like welfare, healthcare and housing,” says Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science. "For them, the government is there to protect mostly negative political and civil rights, like the right to sell your labor on the open market. They don't deal with redistribution."

"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."

William C. Banks, professor emeritus, of public administration and international affairs, spoke with several media outlets about the Nunes memo, how the FISA process works, and what the controversy means for the Trump presidency and the U.S. intelligence community.