LILY RESLINK
Staff Writer
Many have said, “money talks.” Economists Ben Harris and James Pethokoukis, though, are the specialists in “talking money” at their respective organizations, where they research economic issues and policy in the U.S.
Harris, vice president and director of Economic Studies at Brookings Institution where he holds the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Chair, and Pethokoukis, senior fellow and the DeWitt Wallace Chair at American Enterprise Institute, will discuss money through a political lens at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater.
Pethokoukis said he and Harris — who was unavailable for an interview — plan to commence in free-flowing conversation on what they currently view as the major economic issues facing the U.S.
“One thing I think confuses people and confuses reporters is that we (at AEI) are a collection of scholars who can have different opinions on issues,” Pethokoukis said.
Pethokoukis explained that while other research organizations take a prominent position on political, social and economic issues, he doesn’t feel that AEI does.
AEI’s model represents a “competition of ideas,” according to Pethokoukis. “I think that my conversation (at Chautauqua Institution) will reflect that competition of ideas — friendly competition,” he said.
Pethokoukis said he and Harris will explore the questions of what the U.S. should do to help the economy, what pathways are realistic and what underlying problems exist.
Pethokoukis said his broad focus is on economic growth and related public policy that accelerates growth in ways that benefit the American people. This parallels Harris’ areas of focus, which Brookings lists as public finance and macroeconomics.
Among high-ranked economic educator and advisor positions listed in his Brookings biography, Harris served as the senior economist with the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee, and most recently, assistant secretary for economic policy and chief economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. During the Obama administration, Harris served as the chief economist and economic adviser to the vice president of the United States and a senior economist with the Council of Economic Advisers. The New York Times described him as the “Quiet Architect of Biden’s Plan to Rescue the Economy” in 2020.
Although the two public policy research organizations are sometimes perceived as being associated with different political leanings, they collaborate on shared goals, such as the recent Brookings-AEI Commission on U.S. Rural Prosperity.
In their respective expert roles, Harris and Pethokoukis engage with the media to share the stances informed by their research. In February 2026, Harris shared his perspective with Business Insider on the overestimation of the negative economic impact of President Donald Trump’s policies and actions. “It’s entirely possible that this volatile episode in American policymaking will lead to a greater understanding of the U.S. economy,” Harris said in the interview with Business Insider, adding that one of these lessons may be “that the size and diversity of the U.S. economy usually protects it from sharp downturns.”
Harris said in the interview with Business Insider, it is possible for disagreeing parties to hold substantive conversation that is thoughtful, serious, polite, friendly and with both sides actively listening to the other.
For the election-central week, Pethokoukis zoomed in on the role of elections in society.
“There’s a saying that ‘if you want to do policy, you have to do politics,’ and because I think public policy is important, I think people who make public policy are important,” Pethokoukis said.
He said he is less interested in the “horse race” aspect of elections he sees others excited by, and more interested in what decisions a candidate will make to affect public policy when they actually get into office.
Pethokoukis said one shared understanding should be that every public policy has “pluses” and “minuses.” “Everything (the) government does, there are going to be trade-offs,” Pethokoukis said.
He said he wants to advise caution toward engaging with the messages of those who exaggerate the positives of their stances or exaggerate downsides of the stances they disagree with.
“Be very careful of people giving extreme lopsided stories about any political issue,” Pethokoukis said.
Pethokoukis said his conversation with Harris will be proof that discussion of major national issues “can probably look very different than what people see on television.”
In looking at the qualities of many TV debates, Pethokoukis said, “There’s a lot of heat, but no light.” For today with Harris, Pethokoukis said, “I think it will be an interesting conversation — hopefully a lot of light.”
