After weeks of back and forth, a new debt ceiling deal is inching its way through Congress. This week, host Elisa is joined by David Wessel, economic expert at the Brookings Institution, to discuss how economic and debt policies can strengthen or weaken national security. What is the national security impact if Congress fails to reach an agreement? And are the repeated battles over the debt ceiling and deficit threatening our prosperity?

David Wessel is Director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, and a Senior Fellow for Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution:

https://www.brookings.edu/experts/david-wessel/

References:

Wessel, David. In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic. Three Rivers Press, 2010:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/188972/in-fed-we-trust-by-david-wessel/

Wessel, David. Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget. Crown, 2013:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-ink-david-wessel/1110783493

Wessel, David. Only The Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age. PublicAffairs, 2021:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-wessel/only-the-rich-can-play/9781541757202/?lens=publicaffairs

The Antideficiency Act:

https://www.gao.gov/legal/appropriations-law/resources

The Chips Act:

https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr4346/BILLS-117hr4346enr.pdf

The Biden Administration's International Economic Agenda: A Conversation with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan:

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/es_20230427_sullivan_intl_economic_agenda_transcript.pdf