The 2025-26 Arnold C. Harberger Distinguished Lecture on Economic Development: The Future of the Dollar

Kenneth Rogoff, Maurits C. Boas Professor at Harvard University and former chief economist, IMF

Thursday, February 12, 2026
4:30 PM
UCLA University Club (formerly Faculty Club), Morrison Room
480 Charles E. Young Dr East
Los Angeles, CA 90095

ABOUT THE EVENT

Kenneth Rogoff argues that America’s currency might not have reached today’s lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck. Drawing in part on his own experiences, including with policymakers and world leaders, Kenneth Rogoff animates the remarkable postwar run of the dollar—how it beat out the Japanese yen, the Soviet ruble, and the euro—and the challenges it faces today from crypto and the Chinese yuan, the end of reliably low inflation and interest rates, political instability, and the fracturing of the dollar bloc. Americans cannot take for granted that the Pax Dollar era will last indefinitely, not only because many countries are deeply frustrated with the system, but also because overconfidence and arrogance can lead to unforced errors. Rogoff shows how America’s outsized power and exorbitant privilege can spur financial instability—not just abroad but also at home.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Kenneth Rogoff is Maurits C. Boas Professor at Harvard University, and former chief economist at the IMF. His influential 2009 book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, shows the remarkable quantitative similarities across time and countries in the roots and aftermath of debt and financial crises. Rogoff is also known for his pioneering work on central bank independence, and on exchange rates. His monthly syndicated column on global economic issues is published in over 50 countries. His 2025 Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance explores the post-war rise of the dollar, the challenges ahead from crypto and the Chinese yuan, and argues that the period of reliably low interest rates, inflation and exchange rate volatility has likely come to an end. His other notable books include the seminal Foundations of International Macroeconomics (1996, with Maurice Obstfeld), The Curse of Cash (2016); and Sovereign Debt: A Guide for Economists and Practitioners (2019)

Rogoff is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has long ranked among the top dozen most cited economists, and is an international grandmaster of chess.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Kimberly Clausing holds the Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. She is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. During the first part of the Biden Administration, Clausing was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis in the US Department of the Treasury, serving as the lead economist in the Office of Tax Policy.

Professor Clausing’s research examines how government decisions and corporate behavior interplay in the global economy. She has published numerous articles on taxation, climate policy, and international trade, and she is the author of Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital (Harvard University Press, 2019).

Clausing has worked on economic policy research with the International Monetary Fund, the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution, the Tax Policy Center, and the Center for American Progress. She has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Committee on Finance, the Senate Committee on the Budget, and the Joint Economic Committee.

Professor Clausing has received two Fulbright Research awards (to Belgium and Cyprus), and her research has been supported by external grants from the National Science Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the International Centre for Tax and Development, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Professor Clausing received her B.A. from Carleton College in 1991 and her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1996, both in economics.

ABOUT THE ARNOLD C. HARBERGER DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES

Established in 1997, the Arnold C. Harberger Distinguished Lecture on Economic Development celebrates Arnold Harberger as an eminent scholar and teacher. The lectures provide a special forum for outstanding students of international economics and policy to present their views and research to the UCLA community and the public.