On Sunday, February 12, influential economist Stephen Roach will speak at the 9AM Adult Forum at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on the topic “Rethinking Global Trade: America First or America Last?”

Fundamental questions are now being raised about America’s role in the $80 trillion global economy. From a Mexican-funded border wall and threatened tariffs on China to charges of currency manipulation by Japan and Germany to the abrogation of “dumb trade deals” such as NAFTA (with Canada and Mexico) and TPP (a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership), the Trump agenda appears to be taking dead aim on the risks global trade pose to American prosperity.

What are the merits of this argument? What are the likely responses of other nations to America’s about-face on trade and globalization? How do we weigh the impacts on U.S. families and workers? On a hollowed-out manufacturing sector? Does history offer any guide as to how these questions might be answered? All are welcome to attend this discussion.

Stephen Roach is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs and a Senior Lecturer at Yale’s School of Management. He was formerly Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and the firm’s Chief Economist for the bulk of his 30-year career at Morgan Stanley, heading up a highly regarded team of economists around the world.

Mr. Roach’s current teaching and research program focuses on the impacts of Asia on the broader global economy. At Yale, he has introduced new courses for undergraduates and graduate students on the “The Next China” and “The Lessons of Japan” and co-teaches the highly acclaimed “Macro Debate.” His writing and research also addresses globalization, trade policy, the US-China economic relationship, and the challenges of post-crisis economic policy strategies.

Stephen Roach has long been one of Wall Street’s most influential economists. His work has appeared in academic journals, books, congressional testimony and has been disseminated widely in the domestic and international media. Roach’s opinions on the global economy have been known to shape the policy debate from Beijing to Washington.

His latest book, Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China (Yale University Press, 2014) examines the challenges, risks, and opportunities of what is likely to be the world’s most important economic relationship of the 21st century. His previous book, The Next Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Globalization (Wiley, 2009), analyzes Asia’s economic imbalances and the dangers of the region’s excess dependence on overextended Western consumers.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1982, Mr. Roach served on the research staff of the Federal Reserve Board and was also a research fellow at the Brookings Institution. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University. Mr. Roach is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Investment Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the China Advisory Board of the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Economics Advisory Board of the University of Wisconsin.