The $38 Trillion National Debt 'Milestone' and the Accounting Mirage

When a ‘too big to fail’ America meets a government too broke to bail it out

I’ve been titanically bearish on America for years. Sorry. I can do math.The United States owes more than $38 trillion. That alone makes the balance sheet hopeless. The debt is insurmountable.America’s GDP in 2024 was $29.2 trillion, meaning the debt exceeds 130% of what we produce in a year. If this were a business, every financial adviser would tell you to file Chapter 11 and salvage what you can.Washington keeps adding another trillion to the…

When a ‘too big to fail’ America meets a government too broke to bail it out

I’ve been titanically bearish on America for years. Sorry. I can do math.The United States owes more than $38 trillion. That alone makes the balance sheet hopeless. The debt is insurmountable.America’s GDP in 2024 was $29.2 trillion, meaning the debt exceeds 130% of what we produce in a year. If this were a business, every financial adviser would tell you to file Chapter 11 and salvage what you can.Washington keeps adding another trillion to the…

American opinion: The national debt is America’s hoarding problem

Even a federal shutdown can’t keep the national debt from continuing to spiral out of control. The nation’s debt now tops $38 trillion. It’s an unfathomable amount of money, so consider this: Every citizen’s share of that debt is more than $110,000. If you look only at taxpayers, the amount is more than $328,000. Another way to view this is to compare the size of the deficit to the country’s gross domestic product. In 1980, the ratio was under 3…

The $38 trillion national debt 'milestone' and the accounting mirage

I ran for Congress on the idea that the national books of the U.S. government were not being kept in a transparent, modern accounting framework. I won.

The $38 trillion national debt ‘milestone’ and the accounting mirage

As the United States’ gross national debt recently surged past the $38 trillion mark, commentators hastened to ring alarm bells. And surely the figure is eye-popping. But as someone who was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1984 on the very platform of fiscal responsibility—and who was the first…

U.S. to Face “Reckoning” Over Its $38 Trillion National Debt

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has issued a stark warning about the soaring US national debt.