Wednesday webinar at one: The shifting mentality on the use of public debt in the US and globally

Wednesday 27 March 2024 | 13:00 - 13:40 | Webinar

In 1790, the finances of the newly formed United States of America were in disarray. Fortunately, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, crafted a programme to repair them.  

A key Hamiltonian principle was that the public debt would be used primarily to address emergencies, such as foreign war, and then repaid when the emergency subsided. The US largely adhered to his principle for 175 years, however after World War II, Americans abandoned this principle, and the nation has run fiscal deficits in almost every year since.  

In this webinar Mark Higgins, CFA, will explain and address: 

why the US philosophy on the use of public debt shifted in the post-World War II era 
how that has led to unsustainable fiscal deficits 
how other nations have emulated US practices to varying degrees, making the unsustainable use of debt a global phenomenon in the twenty-first century. 

Timings

Registration: 12:55 
Event: 13:00 - 13:40 

Speaker

Mark Higgins, CFA, Founder, Enlightened Investor

Mark Higgins, CFA is the author of Investing in U.S. Financial History and is a Senior Vice President within Index Fund Advisors (IFA) Institutional. Mark’s written works appear regularly in the Museum of American Finance's Financial History Magazine and CFA Institute's Enterprising Investor. 

Mark is also a frequent speaker both domestically and internationally on topics related to US financial history and institutional investment management. Mark joined IFA in August 2023 to expand the firm’s footprint in the institutional investment plan market. Prior to joining IFA institutional, Mark served as an institutional investment consultant for more than 12 years. In this role, he served clients such as endowments, pension plans and foundations, that had aggregate assets of more than $60 billion.

Mark graduated from Georgetown University Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree in English and Psychology. He received an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Mark is a CFA Charterholder.