The UW Now

media release: Stream at the WAA YouTube channel.

With the recent raising of the U.S. debt ceiling, questions abound over the best course of action. What are the consequences of ongoing fiscal deficits and growing national debt? How much debt is too much for the health of the economy? Does the debt ceiling play any useful role in improving policy or does it simply increase the risk of an unexpected, high-impact economic event?

On the next UW Now Livestream, a panel of experts will discuss U.S. fiscal policy. The program will be moderated by Mike Knetter, CEO of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association.

Featured guests:

Dana Peterson is the chief economist and center leader of economy, strategy, and finance at The Conference Board, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit business membership and research group organization that conducts economic and business management research. In her work, she analyzes global economic themes having direct financial market implications, including monetary policy; fiscal and trade policy; debt; taxation; environmental, social, and governance investing; and demographics. Peterson’s research covering rates, equities, credit, foreign exchange, commodities, political analysis, and asset allocation has been featured by U.S. and international news outlets, both print and broadcast. Previously, Peterson worked for Citi Bank, where she served as a North America economist and a global economist. Peterson is a graduate of UW-Madison and recipient of the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s 2023 Luminary Award.

Brian Riedl, a graduate of UW-Madison, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative American think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs. Previously, he worked as chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) and as staff director of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth. He has also served on presidential campaigns for Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney. From 2001 to 2011, he was the lead federal budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, the largest think tank in Washington, DC. In 2006, Riedl exposed the United States Senate’s attempt to add $14 billion in domestic spending (including a “railroad to nowhere” in Mississippi) to an Iraq funding bill. His federal budget research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.

Ananth Seshadri is a professor of economics at UW-Madison. He is also the Mary Sue and Mike Shannon Distinguished Chair for Economics and codirector of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE). Seshadri specializes in macroeconomics and public finance. He has published extensively on the causes and consequences of demographic change and the effects of technological change in accounting for various demographic patterns. His research has appeared in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Political Economy. He was awarded a research fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2006. He has received several competitive research grants from the National Science Foundation and from the National Institute of Aging.