On Tuesday, February 1, 2022, the United States national debt surpassed $30tr for the first time.
It’s the latest in a series of recent fiscal and monetary benchmarks received with increasing blitheness. I counted only a handful of headlines reporting on it. Two of which, interestingly, were The New York Times and Xinhua, the official press organ of the People’s Republic of China.
In 1789, the youthful US government assumed responsibility for $75m (approximately $1.6bn in 2022) in debt incurred to fight the War of Independence. In less than 50 years, and amid fluctuations, that number had been paid down to less than $40,000 (roughly $1.25m in 2022). While the Civil War was still being fought, the national debt surpassed $1bn (about $22bn in 2022) for the first time.
By the mid-1970s, following the Progressive Era, World Wars I and II, the Great Depression and New Deal, the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War and the Great Society, the debt hit $500bn ($2.5tn in 2022). In 1981, the $1tn barrier was crossed. The $10tn mark came and went in 2008, $20tn in 2017, $25tn in 2020 and here we are.
