Today America’s federal debt has reached unimaginable proportions. As we enter 2024, many believe it nearly impossible to resolve our fiscal crisis.

Yet America has overcome fiscal crises before. The United States endured painful public debt challenges from its infancy, only to be rescued by the brilliant work of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. Under President Warren Harding and, especially, President Calvin Coolidge, responsible fiscal policy enabled our country to narrow debt to reasonable proportions and to balance the budget many years in a row.

We will explore this history, its good and bad chapters, on March 7, 2024 at a national conference in Washington, D.C. The conference will be held at the Library of Congress and will shine a bright light on the record of public finance crises and their implications for social and economic growth.

America in Debt

March 7, 2024

7:30 AM — 4:30 PM

Library of Congress — James Madison Building

While America in Debt will look to the past, the conference sets its sights on the future. Key policymakers and some one hundred high schoolers and college students, alumni of Coolidge Foundation programs, are confirmed to attend. Among confirmed speakers and moderators are former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Robert Bruner, scholar of the 1907 Financial Crisis, former Senator Phil Gramm, James Grant, scholar of the Forgotten Depression of 1921, former World Bank President David Malpass, and numerous other scholars and policy leaders.

Click here to learn more.

Due to capacity limitations, attendance at this conference is by invitation only. Questions? Please contact William Pettinger at wpettinger@coolidgefoundation.org.