The Call by the Global Intelligence Desk

The global trading system is being rewritten in real time. In the old model, success meant finding the lowest-cost producer. In the new one, resilience, security, and trusted partners increasingly compete with efficiency as the organizing principle of trade. Few people have witnessed that shift more closely than former Congressman Kevin Brady.  

Over 26 years in Congress, Brady became one of America's leading advocates for free trade, helped pass 13 trade agreements, and authored the 2017 tax law. Today, as the U.S. Chamber's sherpa to the B20, he sits at one of the key intersections between government policy and the priorities of global business. He joins us to discuss whether trade policy has fundamentally changed and what role business should play in shaping what comes next. 

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

On Sunday, July 19, the global soccer tournament final will be played in New Jersey. The event will cap 104 matches over 39 days, spanning 16 cities across three North American countries and drawing the largest crowds in the tournament's history. By many accounts, the tournament has been one of the most powerful exercises in soft power in recent memory, with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics soon to follow. Beyond soccer, global sports continue to deepen their international reach. England's Premier League, fueled by growing American ownership and investment, has become a major commercial force in the U.S., while the NBA and NFL continue to expand their own global ambitions. 

All of this, however, arrives at a moment of uncertainty, when tariffs, wars, and strategic rivalry dominate the headlines. We explore how major sporting events can help shape investment, influence national brands, strengthen commercial ties, contribute to growth - and at times, succeed where politics cannot.  

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

For 75 years, NATO's central mission has been deterrence: convincing adversaries that the cost of conflict outweighs any possible gain. Next week, as Alliance leaders gather in Ankara to reinforce that commitment, they face a new question. Can deterrence survive the age of artificial intelligence?

Shield AI – a fast-growing defense startup - was founded on the simple proposition that the greatest victory requires no war. Some argue compressed decisions of automated warfare could lower the threshold for confrontation. But our guest, President and Co-founder Brandon Tseng, sees the AI arms race as strengthening defense posture - and actually reducing the risk of war.

Either way, Shield AI illustrates not only the security challenge, but an example of industry disruption, and one of the great industrial opportunities of our time.

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

China spent decades tightening its vice grip on the industrial ecosystems crucial to an era of electrification, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing. The allies of the West are scrambling to respond, but they face a challenge: building alternatives to China's rare earth dominance requires crossing what is known as the "Valley of Death," the gap between a promising opportunity and the billions of dollars in patient capital needed to build at scale.

USA Rare Earth CEO Barbara Humpton believes she has found a way across. Her company is reviving a model, one with significant historical precedent, that combines public financing, private capital, and the power of allied partnerships while leaving governance firmly in private hands. If successful, it could become a blueprint not only for rare earths, but for a broader effort to reduce dependence on China in industries critical to America's security.

The challenge boils down to a central question: Who will finance the end of China's rare earth monopoly?

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

China mines, refines, and manufactures most of the world's rare earths, and the magnets inside electric vehicles, fighter jets, wind turbines, and AI data centers. That gives it enormous leverage. After a fragile U.S.-China truce, tensions have eased, but the deal expires in November, and Beijing is already squeezing Japan. Our guest, Dr. Gracelin Baskaran - a frequent witness before Congress - argues that by wielding its dominance so openly, China may have overplayed its hand, spooking the world into building alternatives to the products it dominates.  

At this week's G7 summit, Western leaders pledged to cut reliance on any single supplier to 60% by 2030. Others say China's grip is as tight as ever, and the West's scramble is noise. For any business that relies on these materials, the stakes in the debate shapes pricing, supply security, and strategy for the next decade. 

It all turns on one question: has China overplayed its hand in critical minerals? 

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

The Federal Open Market Committee, the rate-setting body at our central bank, recently convened with Kevin Warsh as the new Chairman. He takes the helm as U.S. inflation is running between 3-to-4% and Washington is running annual deficits just shy of $2 trillion. Abroad, the Fed has become something akin to the world’s lender of last resort, offering emergency dollar liquidity to foreign central banks. The demands, at home and abroad, raise questions about Fed independence, a principle promoted by both Warsh and his former colleague - and our guest on today - Thomas Hoenig, who has long argued that the Fed has drifted from a guardian of price stability into a provider of liquidity for both Washington and the global financial system.

We  focus on the stakes in whether the ‘New Fed’ will find a way to resist the pressure of recent years to open the taps and instead, to establish more independence. For businesses, the outcome of this challenge will determine bond yields, the costs of capital and how much we all pay in interest. So we ask: What does the new Fed mean for business?

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

“Since 2000, the number of sanctioned individuals and entities worldwide has increased tenfold. Tariffs and trade barriers have quintupled globally…more than 90 percent of advanced economies now screen foreign investment in sensitive sectors, up from less than one-third a decade ago.”

The author of those lines in Foreign Affairs, sanctions expert Daleep Singh, today issues a warning with implications for multinationals. Economic coercion is needed, but overuse can fracture markets, fuel rivalries, and cause instability. When the dollar looks like a weapon, the world builds around it. Trade relations splinter. Allies drift apart on enforcement. Singh joined Jay Sapford to discuss, among other things:, whether has America overused the tools in its economic arsenal. Singh lays out what the answer means for companies caught in the compliance crossfire, and for the line between defending national security and eroding the very system that gives sanctions their bite.

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

The Rule of Law shapes where companies invest, how they manage risk, whether contracts are enforced, intellectual property is protected, and whether a business can execute long-term business planning. On June 11, our Coalition for the Rule of Law will release the 6th Edition of its Global Rule of Law Dashboard, which scores 149 countries across five conditions that shape commercial confidence. Among the big findings: Transparency improved, but stability, accountability, and predictability have all declined. So, the rulebook looks great - until you need it to work. The Chamber's Neil Herrington helps us unpack the data and offer members a foretaste ahead of the official release where conditions are improving, where they are not, and what this means for companies operating across borders.

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his forces captured Russian positions using only ground robots and drones. No infantry. No losses. Kyiv’s success, however, disguises the role of human capital behind the machinery deployed in these attacks, and countless others. The next military advantage may belong not to the country with the flashiest drone, but to the country that best combines machines with people — coders with soldiers, manufacturers with operators, engineers with commanders, private-sector innovation with public-sector urgency. The stakes reach right to the heart of American business: Drone warfare is not just a defense story. It is a supply-chain story, a manufacturing story, a software story, an energy story, and a China story.

Our guest Eliot Cohen, author of the new book "The Strategist: How to think about war & politics"  has spent his career on the questions that matter when the character of war changes: why armies win, why they lose, and how leaders make the decisions that decide wars. Jay Sapsford puts those questions to him now at a time when the soldier on the front line may no longer be a person at all.

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk  

The world is aging. For our lifetimes, that has meant low interest rates, as limited demand, high savings and a flexible global workforce created favorable conditions for easy money. Our guest today, Manoj Pradhan, founder of Talking Heads Macro, argues that over time, aging will result in something completely different: higher wages for a shrinking workforce, more retirement benefits, more public debt – and higher interest rates to attract enough investors to fund it all. Pradhan says Japan is going through that transition right now. If he is right, it will mean a tougher funding environment for business. Higher rates makes corporate debt more expensive to service, forcing companies to rethink capital allocation, pricing, labor, and supply chains.

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The Call is a series of live video conversations featuring expert guests from the U.S. Chamber's Global Intelligence Desk. Live access to The Call is a benefit to the Chamber’s members; however, we are pleased to provide recordings of the calls for wider listening thereafter.

Learn more about the Global Intelligence Desk: https://globalintelligencedesk.com/
Join the conversation on LinkedIn:   / global-intelligence-desk