The Big Picture on Debt, Deficits and Interest Rates

“Unsustainable!”

To quote Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”

For decades, journalists, economists, politicians, and central bankers have said that the U.S. federal debt is on an “unsustainable” path. However, it has stayed on that path, climbing from a very manageable $3.3 trillion, or 31.5% of GDP, in fiscal 2001, to $28.3 trillion, or 98.2% of GDP in fiscal 2024.