US national debt surpasses a record $38 trillion

As the gap between government spending and revenues in the world’s largest economy quickly grows, the national debt of the United States has surpassed $ 38 trillion.

The staggering figure was included in the US Department of Treasury’s most recent financial report, which revealed that the nation’s debt was currently $ 38, 019, and 813.

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a think tank based in Washington, DC, the figure represents roughly $111, 000 in debt for every person in the US, which is equivalent to the value of the economies of China, India, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom as a whole.

The US debt reached $ 37 trillion in mid-August, just over two months after the milestone. In November 2024, the debt was $ 36 trillion and $ 35 trillion in July that year.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s CEO, Michael A. Peterson, claimed US lawmakers were not performing their “basic fiscal duties.”

A great nation like America can’t run its finances in a world without adding trillions of dollars to the debt and budgeting by crisis, according to Peterson in a statement.

Legislators should take advantage of the numerous responsible reforms that would help our nation move forward with stronger future plans rather than letting the debt clock tick higher and higher.

The US government’s credit rating was downgraded from Aaa to Aa1 in May, Moody’s ratings agency cited the failure of successive administrations to “reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and rising interest costs.”

Rating companies Fitch and Standard & Poor’s downgraded ratings in 2011 and 2023, respectively.

Although economists debate how much debt the US can impose before creating a financial crisis, it is generally agreed that the current trajectory cannot be sustained.

According to economists from the Penn Wharton Budget Model’s analysis for 2023, US debt levels above 200 percent of GDP cannot be tolerated by financial markets.