Some time in the next two weeks, the US debt will hit $40 trillion. It’s currently at $39.71 trillion. For those of you who are keeping track, we hit $37 trillion last August. Taking into account the $5 trillion a year in tax receipts means the government spent $8 trillion in the last year, or about $22,000 for every single resident.
Seven years ago, our debt was $23 trillion. In 2010, it was $13.6 trillion. In 2009, it was $11.9 trillion.
When Obama took office in January 2009, the national debt was just $10.6 trillion. It has tripled in the past 17 years. What is the limit? At what point does the whole thing come down?
17 Comments
ghostsniper · July 30, 2026 at 6:10 am
When the whole thing comes down, as it surely will, the insanity will end and the violence will begin. Violence on a scale never seen before.
I never asked for that $22k, never received it, and will never take responsibility for it.
The burn-off will be glorious.
Divemedic · July 30, 2026 at 8:05 am
We will all pay for that $22k. Maybe not in cash, but it’s a huge shit sandwich, and we will all have to take a bite.
Steve · July 30, 2026 at 8:52 am
Not necessarily. UK declared that it was defaulting on its Great War debt in ’35(?), and within a few years was using its full faith and credit to borrow for another war.
US could (and I think should) do the same. Repudiate it and let the chips fall where they may. Mostly it will be contained to the more wealthy. And, yes, that includes at least both of us on here. But we still have all the factories, buildings, mineral wealth, means of production, etc. They are just all repriced.
But what better gift could we give our posterity? A balance sheet with no liabilities save those that were created buying or producing durable assets. Yes, they may have to go years before anyone will lend to them, but that’s what got us in this mess in the first place.
Divemedic · July 30, 2026 at 9:09 am
I think that would cause the dollar to lose reserve currency status, and it would also gut US retirement plans. Doing this would guarantee the elected officials responsible would see his career end at the very next election. The American electorate is too polarized and too short-sighted for there to be any other outcome.
For those reasons, it won’t ever happen.
Steve · July 30, 2026 at 7:35 pm
Agreed. But it would be better than driving this bus until the wheels fall off. We can live without being the reserve currency; we’ll have to at some point anyway. Better at a time of our choosing.
Polimath · July 30, 2026 at 8:39 pm
Ahem. The UK also imposed a 95% onetime tax after the war. That doesn’t mean much to those who have none but to those who saved and invested and were financially prudent it would destroy them. And usually at a time of their life when they were least able to recover from it. Hence sending them to the poor house to stand along side their destitute countrymen at the soup kitchen. The sinking boat doesn’t care what brand of suit you are wearing. Everyone is going for a swim.
TRX · July 31, 2026 at 4:48 am
> Doing this would guarantee the elected officials responsible would see his career end at the very next election.
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If the elections were honest, probably. But now we have considerable evidence that the entire election system is a giant fraud.
Divemedic · July 31, 2026 at 6:58 am
Not completely, or Trump wouldn’t be President. There is a margin of cheat, however.
Joe Blow · July 30, 2026 at 7:19 am
I have the same problem… how is the house of cards still standing?
I put my corporate job 401k money into ETF’s that hold physical metal (CEF is a good one), and no longer push the max-contribution to it. That ‘extra’ money goes to physical 1-oz rounds in my sock drawer and steel/lead. It’s coming, and the currency is toast.
Stefan v. · July 30, 2026 at 8:00 am
“At what point does the whole thing come down?”
Going down now, faster than the last altar boy at a cardinal’s conclave.
TRX · July 31, 2026 at 4:43 am
The poster child for a modern Western country that mismanaged itself into economic collapse is Argentina. The politicians finally broke the economy and the whole country went Weimar-style bankrupt.
They’ve mostly dug themselves back out of that hole, but a lot of people lost everything; many of them, even their lives.
What’s also worrying, is the United States isn’t the only country that’s effectively bankrupt and running on bad credit. Almost all the countries in the world are spending fiat money like a gangbanger with a stolen credit card.
SiG · July 30, 2026 at 9:01 am
The standard inflation calculators say that between 2010 and the end of 2025, inflation amounted to 49.55%. That turns that $13.6 T (times 1.4955) into $20.3 Trillion in today’s money all by itself. No, it doesn’t absolve the spending but it sure doesn’t help.
With all the corruption – honestly theft, outright stealing – being reported, I honestly think if it wasn’t for the outright theft, we’d have a balanced budget.
There is no such thing as fixing this without a boatload of arrests – and getting rid of the Federal Reserve. You’ll never cut the spending enough to matter. Touching the federal budget instantly gets attacked as killing poor people here and everywhere in the world. I’d be surprised if a dime out of every dollar spent actually helped someone except the gubmint clowns along the way.
Treefarmer · July 30, 2026 at 3:37 pm
“What’s the limit?”
The answer to that is worth a fortune. I didn’t think we’d last much beyond $14 trillion.
Jviv · July 31, 2026 at 3:11 am
Don’t stop, believing
lynn · July 30, 2026 at 10:31 pm
Great question. I wish that I had an answer.
This is why the USA will have a financial apocalypse in the not so distant future. It will not be pretty.
lynn · July 30, 2026 at 10:33 pm
And this is why I plan on starting my Social Security next year when I turn 67.
TRX · July 31, 2026 at 4:32 am
“Modern Monetary Theory” says that inflation is actually beneficial.
As Mack Reynolds once said, “If the economists could guess correctly even 51% of the time, why aren’t they all millionaires?”
He said that in the 1960s, when a million was actually a lot of money. But he had a point about taking economic advice from people whose income came from tenure in academia.
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