Title: Keeping Our Fiscal Powder Dry. Dr. Chris Ragan will lay out a way to think about when Canada’s public debt is so high as to create financing problems, when it is low enough to be safe from those same problems, and when our public debt is in a “middle” zone where a realistic shock might be large enough to push the debt-to-GDP ratio back into the danger zone. Based on some straightforward premises about the role of government, the willingness of lenders to purchase our government bonds, and the behaviour of Canadian voters with respect to taxes and spending, Ragan concludes that Canada’s public debt is currently in that “middle” zone and that current Canadian governments are being too complacent about reducing our public debt. This leads Ragan to call for a serious review of current expenditures and for setting government priorities, neither of which governments are usually keen to do. Location: Trent University – BL 103 (Film Theater)