Amid the torrent of tariff increases announced recently by US President Donald Trump, several economic advisers have stepped into the spotlight to justify and shape his administration’s economic agenda. Stephen Miran, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, is one of them.
Although not the first to come up with the idea of a “Mar-a-Lago Accord”, Miran’s mention of the concept in November attracted significant attention. He went further in a speech delivered on April 7, arguing that countries benefiting from US security guarantees and economic support should contribute more to the system.
Who is Stephen Miran and why is he important?
Miran has been chairman of the Trump administration’s Council of Economic Advisers since March, with his rise signalling a consolidation of Trump’s protectionist economic vision within the administration.
Before his appointment, Miran served as a senior strategist at hedge fund Hudson Bay Capital Management. He was also a senior adviser on economic policy at the US Department of the Treasury from 2020 to 2021, during Steven Mnuchin’s tenure as treasury secretary.
Trump’s swift tariff increases on China and other major economies since returning to office in January appear to echo the hardline trade strategy Miran laid out in November’s paper, which was titled “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System”.
What were his main arguments in the April 7 speech?
In his Hudson Institute speech, Miran contended that the US has long borne the costs of providing “global public goods”, including both military security and a stable financial system centred around the US dollar, according to an official transcript released by the White House.
