Brad W. Setser

Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow

Subscribe
Profile picture

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.

Media Inquiries

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
Clear All
Regions
Topics
Type

More CFR Experts

See all Experts

Explore More on International Economic Policy

Economics

Global Trade Tracker
The CFR Global Trade Tracker allows you to gauge trends in international trade through time. The map below compiles trade data from 178 countries as reported to the International Monetary Fund (IM…

Tracker by Benn Steil January 27, 2025 Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies

China

Tracking China’s Control of Overseas Ports
This interactive map tracks China’s growing maritime influence through investments in strategic overseas ports. Users can plot the location of each port and view satellite images alongside detailed information on the share of Chinese ownership, the total amount of Chinese investment, and the port’s suitability for use by the Chinese military.

Tracker by Zongyuan Zoe Liu August 26, 2024 Asia Program

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 June 12, 2024 Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies

Top Stories on CFR

Ecuador

Ecuador’s Next President Will Face Debt, Drought, and Gangs
April’s runoff election could decide whether Ecuador continues a descent into instability and violence, or charts a new course.

Expert Brief by Will Freeman February 20, 2025

RealEcon

Donald Trump Wants Reciprocity in Trade: Here’s a Closer Look
The president’s plan for reciprocal tariffs sounds good in theory. But there was a reason the United States abandoned the approach a century ago. The gains would be few and the costs enormous.

Article by Edward Alden and Jennifer Hillman February 14, 2025 RealEcon

China Strategy Initiative

India, the United States and the Future of the International Trade Order
India has enjoyed bipartisan support in the U.S. as a critical economic counterbalance to China, but the United States still has a tenuous grasp on its interests. In this series, three experts examine India’s position on digital trade, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and industrial policy.

Article by Manjari Chatterjee Miller February 10, 2025 China Strategy Initiative