Joe Balagtas, a former senior economist at the White House's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) and professor of agricultural economics at Purdue joins colleague hosts Todd Kuethe and Chad Fiechter in this episode of the Purdue Commercial AgCast. Balagtas shares his unique experiences working at the CEA during the Trump administration and his role in providing the President with critical economic information. He provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of his daily life, the stress and fulfillment of working under extreme pressure, and the lessons learned which he brings back to academia. The conversation provides insight into the importance of having specialized economists in policymaking and the dynamic nature of the White House during significant events like the trade war and COVID-19 pandemic.

Podcast provided by Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. For more economic and farm management information, visit us at http://purdue.edu/commercialag.

Slides and the transcript from the discussion can be found at https://purdue.ag/agcast199.

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