The Globalization Business Model Under Threat

A discussion with Dr. Robert Wescott about the globalization business model and the impacts of the new Administration’s shift to an “America first” trade policy.

About Dr. Robert Wescott

Robert F. Wescott is President of Wescott Strategic Advisors and also Founder and Senior Advisor at Keybridge Research, a 24-person economic research firm based in Washington, DC, that has served global financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, leading nonprofits, and government agencies since 2001. Dr. Wescott has 35 years of professional experience working on global macroeconomic, financial, and public policy issues. He is a frequent speaker to business and financial audiences around the world about the global economy, financial markets, and geopolitical risks. He also testifies as an expert before U.S. Congressional committees on economic and financial policy matters.

Wescott served for four years at the White House as Special Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Policy and as Chief Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. During these years he served as international economic adviser to the President and helped to develop the Administration’s policies toward the European Union, China, Japan, Russia, and key emerging market countries. At the Council of Economic Advisers, he conducted economic policy analysis, prepared the Administration’s U.S. economic forecasts, and helped to write the annual Economic Report of the President.

From 1994-98 Dr. Wescott was Deputy Division Chief in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, where he did research on the global economy and prepared the Fund’s semi-annual World Economic Outlook. He also served as an official in the Fund’s European Department. From 1983-93, Wescott was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at Wharton Econometrics/WEFA Group (today S&P Global), a private economic modeling and analysis firm, where he was responsible for the firm’s economic modeling and forecasting. During these years he was the firm’s primary spokesman with clients and the media.

In 1990-91, Wescott lived in Japan with his family and was the first research director at the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development (ICSEAD) in Kitakyushu. ICSEAD was founded in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania and does quantitative research on the economies of East Asia.

Wescott holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and has published research papers in the areas of macroeconomics, energy economics, fiscal policy, inflation, trade policy, global financial crises, and geopolitical risks.

Host or Publisher San Antonio Business and Economics Society