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The U.K. funded debt was over £1 billion as of February 1815, and assuming 43 years to redeem it, the final total will be more than £2 billion
https://newspapers.lib.unb.ca/serials/167/issues/34679/pages/247872
Pg. 2 (right column)
The bond market is telling us the free lunch is over - For most of this century, rich countries have enjoyed a seemingly free lunch: They could spend money as needed, cut taxes at will and stimulate their way out of problems without paying a price in the form of higher borrowing costs or inflation.
The big picture: That era is over. The $145 trillion global bond market is flashing red signals that there's now a price to be paid for governments that indulge their profligate impulses.
It reflects a world where supply disruptions are colliding with massive government borrowing needs and the funds required for the AI buildout.
The result: Higher inflation and surging demand for capital add up to higher and more volatile interest rates. https://www.axios.com/2026/05/26/inflation-debt-oil-bonds #bonds #economy #NationalDebt #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis
The Atlantic | I Now Believe Our National Debt Is a Problem by Jared Bernstein
AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information.
Jared Bernstein argues that the United States is now facing a genuine fiscal danger: public debt has swollen to roughly $31 trillion—about 100 % of GDP—and higher borrowing costs threaten to launch a self‑reinforcing “debt spiral.” While past growth rates outpaced interest on the debt, rising interest rates, larger deficits and the flood of new debt issuance mean that servicing costs are becoming the fastest‑growing part of the federal budget, pushing overall borrowing higher and raising rates for mortgages, auto loans and other credit. Bernstein attributes much of this trajectory to decades of politically driven tax cuts—first under Reagan, then under Bush and Trump—which have expanded the deficit without delivering the promised growth, and to a political climate where deficit spending is rewarded and fiscal restraint is penalized. He contends that sustainable borrowing must fund productive investments, not tax‑cut‑driven consumption, and calls for new revenue sources such as taxes on unrealized capital gains to address growing inequality and fund essential programs. Though the U.S. enjoys a unique advantage as the world’s reserve‑currency issuer, Bernstein warns that this leeway is limited; without a shift toward fiscal responsibility—stopping the “digging” that deepens the hole—the nation risks higher costs of living and a deteriorating economic outlook.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/national-debt-problem/687257/?utm_source=feed
Military Victory is Dead
“MODERN WAR INSTITUTE AT WEST POINT”
“Victory’s been defeated; it’s time we recognized that and moved on to what we actually can accomplish.
We’ve reached the end of victory’s road, and at this juncture it’s time to embrace other terms, a less-loaded lexicon, like “strategic advantage,” “relative gain,” and “sustainable marginalization.”
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Harvard Professor Steven Pinker triumphantly announced the peace deal between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). While positive, this declaration rings hollow as the exception that proves the rule – a tentative treaty, however, at the end, roughly 7,000 guerrillas held a country of 50 million hostage over 50 years at a cost of some 220,000 lives. Churchill would be aghast: Never in the history of human conflict were so many so threatened by so few.
One reason this occasion merited a more somber statement: military victory is dead. And it was killed by a bunch of cheap stuff.
The term “victory” is loaded, so let’s stipulate it means unambiguous, unchallenged, and unquestioned strategic success – something more than a “win,” because, while one might “eke out a win,” no one “ekes out a victory.” Wins are represented by a mere letter (“w”); victory is a tickertape with tanks.
Which is something I’ll never see in my military career; I should explain. When a government has a political goal that cannot be obtained other than by force, the military gets involved and selects some objective designed to obtain said goal. Those military objectives can be classified broadly, as Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz did, into either a limited aim (i.e. “occupy some…frontier-districts” to use “for bargaining”), or a larger aim to completely disarm the enemy, “render[ing] him politically helpless or military impotent.” Lo, we’ve arrived at the problem: War has become so inexpensive that anyone can afford the traditional military means of strategic significance – so we can never fully disarm the enemy. And a perpetually armed enemy means no more parades (particularly in Nice).
Never in the history of human conflict were so many so threatened by so few.
It’s a buyer’s market in war, and the baseline capabilities (shoot, move, and communicate) are at snake-belly prices. Tactical weaponry, like AK-47s are plentiful, rented, and shipped from battlefield to battlefield, and the most lethal weapon U.S. forces encountered at the height of the Iraq War, the improvised explosive device, could be had for as little as $265. Moving is cost-effective too in the “pickup truck era of warfare,” and reports on foreign fighters in Syria remind us that cheap, global travel makes it possible for nearly anyone on the planet to rapidly arrive in an active war zone with money to spare. Also, while the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba shut down the megacity Mumbai in 2008 for less than what many traveling youth soccer teams spend in a season, using unprotected social media networks, communication has gotten even easier for the emerging warrior with today’s widely available unhackable phones and apps. These low and no-cost commo systems are the glue that binds single wolves into coordinated wolf-packs with guns, exponentially greater than the sum of their parts. The good news: Ukraine can crowdfund aerial surveillance against Russian incursions. The less-good news: strikes, like 9/11, cost less than three seconds of a single Super Bowl ad. With prices so low, why would anyone ever give up their fire, maneuver, and control platforms?
All of which explains why military victory has gone away. Consider the Middle East, and the recent comment by a Hezbollah leader, “This can go on for a hundred years,” and his comrade’s complementary analysis, that “as long as we are there, nobody will win.” With such a modestly priced war stock on offer, it’s no wonder Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies agrees with the insurgents, recently concluding, of the four wars currently burning across the region, the U.S. has “no prospect” of strategic victory in any. Or that Modern War Institute scholar Andrew Bacevich assesses bluntly, “If winning implies achieving stated political objectives, U.S. forces don’t win.” This is what happens when David’s slingshot is always full.
The guerrillas know what many don’t: It’s the era, stupid. This is the nature of the age, as Joshua Cooper Ramos describes, “a nightmare reality in which we must fight adaptive microthreats and ideas, both of which appear to be impossible to destroy even with the most expensive weapons.” Largely correct, one point merits minor amendment – it’s meaningless to destroy when it’s so cheap to get back in the game, a hallmark of a time in which Wolverine-like regeneration is regular.
This theme even extends to more civilized conflicts. Take the Gawker case: begrudged hedge fund giant Peter Thiel funded former wrestler Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against the journalistic insurrectionists at Gawker Media, which forced the website’s writers to lay down their keyboards. However, as author Malcolm Gladwell has pointed out – Gawker’s leader, Nick Denton, can literally walk across the street, with a few dollars, and start right over. Another journalist opined, “Mr. Thiel’s victory was a hollow one – you might even say he lost. While he may have killed Gawker, its sensibility and influence on the rest of the news business survive.” Perhaps Thiel should have waited 50 more years, as Colombia had to, to write his “victory” op-ed? He may come to regret the essay as his own “Mission Accomplished” moment.
True with websites, so it goes with warfare. We live in the cheap war era, where the attacker has the advantage and the violent veto is always possible. Political leaders can speak and say tough stuff, promise ruthless revenge – it doesn’t matter, ultimately, because if you can’t disarm the enemy, you can’t parade the tanks.”
https://mwi.westpoint.edu/defeat-military-victory/
#GoodLeaders #GovernmentAccoutability #GovernmentInefficiency #Iran #ISIS #Israel #MiddleEast #nationalDebt #Pentagon #politics #StatesmanshipInWashington #TERRORISM #war
🏦 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚'𝐬 $39.2 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 #𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐭 #𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐭 #𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐭𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤
The United States Is Not Insolvent. But the Warning Signs Are Real.
By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News
Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 14, 2026 — 12:35 p.m. PHST
A claim circulating on social media says the United States is now “insolvent.” That is not accurate. The United States is under serious long-term fiscal pressure, but it is not currently unable to pay its bills.
That distinction matters.
What Insolvent Means
Insolvency means an entity cannot meet its financial obligations as they come due. For a person or business, that usually means bills cannot be paid, debts cannot be serviced, and creditors may take action.
A national government is different, especially when it issues debt in its own currency. The United States still sells Treasury securities, still services its debt, and still operates as the central issuer of the world’s dominant reserve currency.
That does not make the debt harmless. It does mean the word “insolvent” is being used too loosely.
Where the Claim Comes From
The claim appears to come from recent discussion of the federal government’s financial statements. The Treasury’s fiscal year 2025 financial report shows large long-term obligations and continuing fiscal imbalance. The Government Accountability Office also noted serious financial reporting limitations, including unresolved accounting problems at the Department of Defense and issues involving transactions between federal agencies (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2026; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026).
That is a real concern.
But it is not the same as saying the United States has stopped paying its obligations. FactCheck.org and Snopes both reviewed the claim that Treasury had declared the United States insolvent and found that claim false (FactCheck.org, 2026; Snopes, 2026).
The Real Problem Is Trajectory
The real issue is not immediate insolvency. The real issue is the path.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that federal debt will remain high and rise over the long term if current laws generally remain unchanged. CBO’s long-term outlook shows sustained pressure from deficits, interest costs, and aging-related spending (Congressional Budget Office, 2025).
That means the United States is not broke today, but it is making future budget choices harder.
Interest costs are especially important. As more federal money goes to servicing debt, less flexibility remains for defense, infrastructure, disaster response, health care, and other public needs.
Why Household Comparisons Fail
It is tempting to compare the federal government to a household with a credit card. That comparison is politically useful, but economically weak.
A household cannot issue dollars. A household cannot tax a national economy. A household cannot sell Treasury securities to global investors. A household cannot rely on a central bank that operates inside the same sovereign monetary system.
The United States can do all of those things.
That does not mean Washington can borrow forever without consequence. It means the danger usually arrives through inflation, rising interest costs, market instability, and political dysfunction before it arrives as simple bankruptcy.
What a Real Crisis Would Look Like
A real U.S. fiscal crisis would likely involve one or more of the following:
failure to make required debt payments,
a major loss of confidence in Treasury markets,
sharp increases in borrowing costs,
severe political inability to manage spending and revenue,
or inflationary pressure from trying to manage debt through money creation.
That is not where the United States is today.
The Treasury is still issuing debt through regular auctions, and GAO reported that Treasury continues to meet borrowing needs, including refinancing large volumes of maturing debt (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2026).
The Correct Diagnosis
The United States is not insolvent.
The United States is fiscally strained.
Those are different statements.
One is a claim of present collapse. The other is a warning about future risk.
The first is social media panic. The second is public finance.
If Americans want to understand the problem, they should stop asking whether the country is “bankrupt” and start asking whether the federal budget is sustainable under current law.
That is where the danger is.
Not collapse, but trajectory.
If this work helps you understand what’s happening, help me keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews
For more from Cliff Potts, see https://cliffpotts.org
References
Congressional Budget Office. (2025). The long-term budget outlook: 2025 to 2055.
FactCheck.org. (2026). The U.S. Treasury didn’t declare the country “insolvent.”
Snopes. (2026). Did Treasury declare U.S. “insolvent”? Here’s the bottom line.
U.S. Department of the Treasury. (2026). Financial report of the United States government: Fiscal year 2025.
U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2026). Federal debt management: Treasury is meeting borrowing needs but faces growing challenges.
#federalBudget #fiscalPolicy #governmentFinance #nationalDebt #TreasurySecurities #USEconomy #UnitedStatesDebt
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