By Samuel Gregg, The Stream - Between January 2016 and October 2018, America’s total public debt increased from $18.922 trillion to $21.682 trillion. That adds up to an expected public-debt-to-GDP ratio of 108 percent by the end of 2018. That’s not good news because there’s evidence that once a country’s GDP-to-debt ratio exceeds 90 percent, it starts hindering growth over the long term, cutting potential growth by as much as half.