US national debt passes $40tn after doubling in a decade

BREAKING: US national debt passes $40 trillion after doubling in a decade, as the interest rate on 30-year bonds hits its highest level in almost 20 years.

Forty trillion dollars. That's America's national debt as of this week.

Ten years ago it was under twenty trillion. It has doubled in a decade, across Trump and Biden both, and it got here faster than the Congressional Budget Office thought possible, they'd pencilled in this number for the end of the fiscal year. Here's the debt clock, already looking quaint at thirty three.

And the bill for all that borrowing just got pricier. The 30 year bond yield hit five point three four percent on Tuesday, the highest in almost twenty years, and traders felt it everywhere. The Treasury blinked, doubling its buybacks to four billion to calm things down, and yields eased a touch. One analyst called that relief unlikely to last.

The ceiling sits at forty one point one trillion. At this pace, that's not a distant problem, that's soon. And the midterms are three months away.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at bbc.co.uk