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Section
Fiscal policy, laws, regulation, lobbying, and political divergence.
Before you continue
The information displayed on The Common Catalyst is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice, and should not be relied upon as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or financial product.
By continuing, you acknowledge that you are responsible for your own financial decisions and should consult a qualified professional when appropriate.
Section
Fiscal policy, laws, regulation, lobbying, and political divergence.
Politics & Government · Fiscal policy
America’s balance sheet in context: how much is owed, who holds it, where federal money goes, and how debt burdens compare with economic growth around the world.
U.S. fiscal risk
Current composite monitoring score
0 lower risk · 100 higher risk
Score drivers
Monitoring indicator, not a default forecast. Daily scores and component inputs continue to be stored in Supabase.
Gross federal debt
$40.10T
Treasury · September 18, 2026
Held by the public
$32.40T
+6.9% gross debt over one year
Fiscal-year outlays
$6.81T
Treasury MTS through 2026-08-31
Net interest
$1.02T
Fiscal year to date
Debt per capita
$117k
Latest World Bank population
United States
Total
$40.10T
Public
$32.40T
Intragovernmental
$7.70T
Public debt is owed to investors, the Fed, and foreign holders. Intragovernmental debt is owed to federal trust funds and accounts.
FY 2026 to date
Treasury · 2026-08-31
FY 2026 to date
Treasury · 2026-08-31
Financing pressure
| Security | Maturity band | Public debt | Avg. rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bills | ≤ 1 year | $7.25T | 3.79% |
| Notes | 2–10 years | $16.21T | 3.35% |
| Bonds | > 10 years | $5.51T | 3.45% |
| Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities | Varies | $2.15T | 1.13% |
| Floating Rate Notes | Varies | $679.92B | 3.85% |
Current financing load
Maturity bands describe security classes, not exact cash-flow dates: bills mature within one year, notes in 2–10 years, bonds beyond 10 years, FRNs in 2 years, and TIPS across 5–30 years. Average rates are portfolio rates, not current market yields.
Global comparison
Who owns U.S. Treasuries?
Debt held by the public spans domestic and foreign holders.
Treasury’s Debt to the Penny API reports the combined balance but does not identify individual owners. Country-level custody data is published separately through the Treasury International Capital system. This dashboard will not display a country ranking until that feed can be consumed directly and refreshed automatically.
Open current Treasury TIC dataDebt versus assets
Gross debt
Counts outstanding liabilities before subtracting government financial assets. It is useful for refinancing and interest-cost pressure.
Net debt
Subtracts selected financial assets. It is closer to a sovereign “debt-to-assets” lens, but excludes roads, land and taxing power and is less comparable across countries.
The clean reading
Debt sustainability is a flow problem as much as a stock problem: watch the primary balance, real GDP growth, interest rates and the maturity schedule together. A country can carry a high debt stock if income grows and financing remains durable.
Sources & methodology
U.S. debt comes from Treasury Fiscal Data’s live Debt to the Penny endpoint. Spending comes from the latest Monthly Treasury Statement Table 9 response. Country comparisons come from the current IMF DataMapper API. Population used for U.S. per-capita debt comes from the latest World Bank API observation. No prior numerical observation is used as a fallback when a source is unavailable.