Welcome to Current Account with Clay Lowery, the Executive Vice President of the Institute of International Finance, the global association of the financial industry. On Current Account, Clay talks about a variety of impactful topics in international finance, while integrating his background in US Politics and Policy where applicable.

Topics on Current Account vary from those domestically, such as the US Debt Ceiling and wide-reaching impact of the US Midterm and Presidential Elections, to those on a global scale, including ongoing development of financial technologies like Central Bank Digital Currencies and overviews of topics such as Blended Finance. There are also some recurring topics, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the relationship between China and the United States and Global Policy Implications, as seen in the Russian oil price cap.

Given the breadth of topics covered, Clay is always looking for fresh perspectives and expert opinions. Many episodes of Current Account feature guest speakers, primarily industry experts and specialists both within and outside of the IIF.

Join Monday morning for new episodes of Current Account, which can be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of Current Account, Clay revisits the timely topic of the United States Debt Ceiling. He outlines what the "X date" is and why it is important, analyzes what each political party will be negotiating for, gives a variety of scenarios as to how the issue may be resolved and lays out the potential impact these outcomes may have at a global scale.

Clay's initial explanation on the debt ceiling can be found in Episode 31: Dancing on the Ceiling: The Upside-Down World of the Debt Ceiling Debate.

In this episode of Current Account, Clay is joined by IIF's Head of EM Europe Research, Ugras Ulku, to discuss the upcoming Turkish Presidential Election on May 14th. The conversation includes an analysis of where Turkey is presently, what each candidate, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, bring to the table, what may happen in each potential outcome and the impact either result will have in the US and other regions.

In this episode of Current Account, Clay revisits China, this time to analyze the processes of decoupling and de-risking China. This includes how the economic outlook of China has changed in the recent months, how Europe and the US differ in their approaches to this process and the different states of the United States's and Europe's respective relationships with China.