Join the Hoover Institution for a compelling conversation as part of The Ideas That Made U.S.: Dialogues on Freedom, our year-long series marking America’s 250th anniversary.

Megan McArdle moderates a dynamic discussion with Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane, Valerie Ramey, and Ross Levine on a defining question of the American experiment: why has the United States been such an enduring outlier in prosperity, and can it remain so? 

For more than a century, America has stood apart as the world’s most prosperous large economy. Yet today, confidence in the American Dream is wavering. What made this success possible, and are those foundations beginning to crack?

The conversation will examine the forces that powered American growth, from freedom and federalism to a culture that rewards risk-taking, and ask whether those strengths are now being undermined. What will it take to restore growth, mobility, and a renewed sense of economic possibility in the decades ahead?