“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:13-14 ESV Bible
The national debt is 34,864,413,338 as of July 12th at 8:50:25 AM. It only climbs by the fraction of a second. National debt is the amount of money the U.S. has borrowed over the course of history. A majority of the debt is held by the public by means of treasury bonds, notes, and bills. The rest is held by the government itself. This type of debt includes obligations to social security recipients, Medicare, and Federal Financing Bank securities. Debt has useful purposes such as emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic, but it can be harmful to the economy.
The debt to GDP ratio is one way to measure how you can service the debt the nation has. Currently, we are at 122.25% debt to GDP. Interest rates also play a crucial role in the landscape of national debt. Essentially, the interest rates have been raised since 2022 to slow the economic activity. This increase creates more of a burden on the future debt but can make U.S. bonds more attractive to lenders.
When the debt ceiling is discussed, it is usually a controversial debate. The debt ceiling the legal limit on federal debt that the government can accrue. In 2023, the U.S. government reached the ceiling of $31.4 trillion. Lawmakers then decided to suspend the ceiling until January 2025. The process of modifying the debt ceiling has happened over 100 times since the end of World War II. The act of suspending it altogether has happened seven times since the beginning of 2013.
In my opinion, the debt we have to God is innumerable. Larger than any sum of money. It is eternal. That debt was paid in full by Jesus. Imagine if the national debt was paid in full. No more worries of default, no more fear of spending. That can happen in every single human’s life.
ESV Study Bible. Crossway Books, 2008.
Q&A: Everything You Should Know about the Debt Ceiling. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, www.crfb.org/papers/qa-everything-you-should-know-about-debt-ceiling. Accessed 12 July 2024.
Why the U.S. Won’t Pay down Its Debt. YouTube, YouTube, 10 Sept. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yU_bVZqqYk&t=183s.
Investment advisory products and services made available through AE Wealth Management, LLC (AEWM), a Registered Investment Advisor. AE Wealth Management LLC provides services without regard to religious affiliation and the views of individual advisors are not necessarily the views of AE Wealth Management. The information and opinions contained in any of the material requested from this website are provided by third parties and have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. They are given for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to buy or sell any of the products mentioned. The information is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual’s situation. 2507642 – 07/24