As of today, August 13, 2025, the total national debt is $37,004,817,625,842.56.
It was at $36 billion on 11/22/24, so almost 9 months ago. The deficit is about $2 trillion per year, so this should be $38 trillion about Feb 15, 2026.
The debt was at $18.5 trillion on on 11/3/2015, so it took about 10 years for this to double. In ten years from now, about August 1, 2035, it should be at $74 billion (if current trends continue).
Just a note, I have been warning about the national debt for a long time. The first time I posted about it on this blog, in November 2011, I was worried that it had reached $15 trillion for the first time. At that time, I noted that the National Debt first passed $10 trillion on 9/30/2008.
Is there an absolute limit? Right now the total debt to GDP ratio is about 122%. I saw a study, I think published by the OECD, which said that 192% was an absolute limit. I linked to it on this blog but now I can't find it. Anyways, lets say 200% is an absolute limit. Beyond that point, interest really makes it increase rapidly, and there is increased risk of a debt distress event. So at the moment the limit would be about $60 trillion. Let's call this the national credit limit. But this increases each year as GDP increases. The problem is that the national debt increases faster than GDP increases, and I expect that we have about 20 years left until it starts to blow up.
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Update: Here is the link: https://aftermath2022.blogspot.com/2024/07/what-is-maximum-sustainable-public-debt.html . The IMF thinks 192% is the maximum for the public debt. If you add in 25% for non-public debt, like the Social Security Trust Fund, the maximum national debt should be no more than 217%. But if you reach the maximum, it is like maxing out your credit card; in reality, you shouldn't go above half of the maximum. But we are already over half of the maximum
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