How to Win a Trade War

An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy

This Princeton Event is supported by the Harvard Club of Princeton's "Harvard at Princeton" Program

Date:               October 26 2026

Time:              4:30 to 5:45pm
Place:              Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building, Room TBD

Speaker:         Chad Brown, Peterson Institute of International Economics

We used to take trade for granted. Trillions of dollars of goods and services crossed borders each year, made possible by a global, rules-based system. Nobody paid too much attention to supply chains: they just worked. Now we are in an era of trade conflict. In their new book, How to Win a Trade War, Keynes and Bown argue that the rules of the global game have been abandoned, and a different trade strategy is needed. Yearning for the old approach to start working again isn’t an option. Countries must adapt, which means learning from history, economics, and from each other, including China. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Soumaya Keynes is an economics columnist at the Financial Times and the host of the podcast The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes. Before joining the Financial Times in July 2023, she spent eight years at The Economist magazine, where she won an award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing for her commentary on the first Trump administration’s trade policy. She co-founded the Trade Talks podcast in 2017 and cohosted The Economist’s Money Talks podcast. She started her career as an economist working at HM Treasury and then as a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. She has an undergraduate degree and a master’s in economics from the University of Cambridge.

Chad P. Bown is the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the host of the Trade Talks podcast. He served as chief economist at the Department of State in the Biden-Harris administration and as senior economist in the White House on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. He has also been on the research staff at the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, and he was on the faculty for twelve years at Brandeis University, where he was a tenured professor of economics. He received a BA in economics and international relations from Bucknell University and a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Please join Dina Brewer & Victor Lee - they'll be wearing crimson.  Wear something crimson/burgundy!

Organizer:       Dina Brewer & Victor Lee

Cost:                   There is no charge for this event.  

Registration:      Register above and please email Victor (victorlee@stonehorseenterprises.com) if you plan to attend