The US national debt burden
The US national debt burden nick.zembruski
October 14, 2024
The debt level is approaching its 1946 historic high. Will it take a collapse in the bond or FX market before we take action?
Current US debt level
“How did your economy collapse?” the world asked. “Two ways,” the US said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
This version of memorable lines from Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises could describe what happens if the US fails to halt its swelling federal debt. Some think that a crisis is unlikely and that worries about the national debt are excessive and unnecessary. But everyone has the same question: what level of debt is too much?
No one will argue that the current debt is historically high. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan federal agency that provides budget and economic information to Congress, estimates US publicly held debt at the end of the 2024 fiscal year (September 30) will be $28.2 trillion, equivalent to 99% of gross domestic product , a measure of the nation’s economic activity (Figure 1).
