Benn Steil

Dr. Benn Steil is senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is also the founding editor of International Finance, a top scholarly economics journal, co-writer of the Council's Geo-Graphics economics blog, co-founder of Efficient Frontiers LLC, a markets consultancy, and affiliated Partner of ERDesk LLC. From 2002 to 2006 he was also a nonexecutive director of the virt-x securities exchange in London (now part of the Swiss Exchange). Prior to his joining the Council in 1999, he was director of the International Economics Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He came to the Institute in 1992 from a Lloyd’s of London Tercentenary Research Fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he received his MPhil and DPhil (PhD) in economics. He also holds a BSc in economics summa cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Steil has written and spoken widely on market structure, regulation, international finance, monetary policy, and economic history. He has consulted extensively for exchanges and financial institutions around the world, and testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress and in major legal cases involving exchanges and trading systems. For 19 years now he has co-organized the renowned annual three-day Global Equity and Derivatives Markets (GEMS) Seminar on Trading and Market Structure.

Dr. Steil is a columnist for Dow Jones' Financial News and a regular op-ed contributor at the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Forbes. His latest book, The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order - winner of the 2013 Spear's Book Award in Financial History and the China Business News Financial Book of the Year award - was called "a triumph of economic and diplomatic history" by the Financial Times, "a superb history" by the Wall Street Journal, "the gold standard on its subject" by the New York Times, and "the publishing event of the season" by Bloomberg's Tom Keene. His previous book, Money, Markets and Sovereignty, was awarded the 2010 Hayek Book Prize. Financial Statecraft: The Role of Financial Markets in American Foreign Policy was named one of the "Best Business Books of 2006" by Library Journal and an "Outstanding Academic Title of 2006" by Choice.