Eswar Prasad

Eswar Prasad is a professor at Cornell University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His book "The Dollar Trap: How the US Dollar Tightened Its Grip on Global Finance" (2014) analyzed why the dollar has maintained its reserve currency status despite US fiscal deficits, arguing that the lack of alternatives and the depth of US financial markets create a self-reinforcing dollar dominance. His subsequent book "The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance" (2021) examined central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, and cryptocurrency. Before academia, he headed the IMF's China Division. He is a leading public commentator on international monetary system issues. Prasad regularly contributes to Project Syndicate and testifies before Congress on international monetary policy, exchange rate management, and the evolving role of digital assets in the global financial architecture.