Countries that borrow as much as the U.S. government experience negative effects, such as lower economic growth and higher interest rates that affect everything from mortgages to business formation and expansion to auto loans. This leads to reduced incomes for their population, less investment and fewer innovations.

When government debt grows too far out of control, countries may even face fiscal or debt crises during which banks collapse, unemployment skyrockets, and everyday goods and services become unaffordable.

Dr. Romina Boccia will discuss how U.S. fiscal policy got so far out of balance, what lies ahead, and what can be done to solve the debt problem before it suffocates the economy.

Romina Boccia, Ph.D. is Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, where she writes a weekly Substack column: 'The Debt Dispatch,' and is a contributing author to the Cato Institute book: A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the U.S. Federal Debt Crisis.

She was the lead author of the Blueprint for Balance, a presidential budget plan introduced by the Heritage Foundation and the plan that most influenced President Trump's 2017 budget submission to Congress. She's advised members of Congress and the executive on deficit reduction and growth-oriented policies for more than a decade and has testified before the U.S. House and Senate, and before the Maryland state legislature.

Dr. Boccia studied economics at George Mason University. Originally from Germany, Boccia currently lives in Salt Lake City, UT.