In 1975, Smick arrived in Washington, D.C., to work as a staff member of the United States Senate. Beginning in 1978, at the age of 26, he served for five years as chief of staff to a member of the leadership of the United States House of Representatives. In 1985, as a private consultant, Smick co-organized a series of prominent global monetary "summits", sponsored by both the U.S. Senate and House leadership, involving the industrialized world's finance ministers, central bankers, and foreign exchange experts. The first summit set the stage for the official 1985
Plaza Accord, the G5 agreement among the major industrialized nations to bring down the value of the dollar during heightened trade tensions.
Washington Post correspondent Hobart Rowen wrote that the conference served as the “final nail in the coffin of the pure floating exchange rate system.” Senator
Bill Bradley (D-NJ), a prime co-sponsor of the summits, at a second event in Zurich, floated the idea of developing-world
debt restructuring which, within several years, led to the issuance of the popular
Brady Bonds. Those bonds helped lead to developing world economic renewal. David Smick is the co-founder (1987), publisher, and editor of the distinguished quarterly magazine
The International Economy, which the president of the
European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet called ″both agenda setting and inspiring.″ David Smick has written op-ed pieces for
The New York Times,
The Wall Street Journal,
The Washington Post, and
USA Today. He has appeared as a commentator on a variety of news outlets including
CNN,
CNBC, The Charlie Rose Show,
Bloomberg News,
Fox Business, and
Morning Joe. In 2020 (with help from Academy Award-winning director
Barry Levinson who served as executive producer), Smick wrote and directed
Stars and Strife, a full-length documentary that predicted a coming tidal wave of political, social, and economic division in America and throughout the industrialized world.
Tom Friedman of the
New York Times described the film as ″an incredible work.″
Stars and Strife was acquired by Lionsgate and premiered on Starz on September 21, 2020. Smick's 2024 documentary ''
America's Burning had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival and was shown nationwide on Regal Cinemas. The film describes the economic reasons for America′s division including the weakening of the middle class and decline of the American Dream. Its bipartisan cast includes James Carville, Leon Panetta, James Baker, Katherine Gehl, Larry Summers, Stan Druckenmiller, Arthur C. Brooks, Rahm Emanuel, Ken Langone, Ian Bremmer, Hawk Newsome of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, and many others. The film is executive produced by Academy Award-winners Michael Douglas and Barry Levinson, and narrated by Michael Douglas. David Ignatius of the Washington Post called the film ″incredibly powerful.″ Whoopi Goldberg on The View (talk show) labeled the film ″imperative.″ In 2025, Smick executive-produced the documentary Bucks County, USA,'' directed by Levinson. The film premiered at the
2025 Sundance Film Festival. Smick′s first bestseller,
The World Is Curved (2008), has been published in 32 languages and was described by
David Brooks of
The New York Times as "astonishingly prescient." The book discussed the financial perils of globalization and questioned whether the Wall Street banks were in full understanding of the values of the assets on their balance sheets. The book arrived during the
2008 financial crisis. President
Bill Clinton called it "one of the three best books on the financial crisis." Smick's second bestseller,
The Great Equalizer: How Main Street Capitalism Can Create an Economy for Everyone, argues that a ruthless corporate elite with deep political connections is rigging American capitalism, making it less dynamic and fair, producing a dangerous decline in social mobility and the loss of the American Dream. ==Personal life==