Wolf Street Economics

  The U.S. Debt Machine: Can the World Keep Financing America? The U.S. Debt Machine: Can the World Keep Financing America? By Mike Nkosi | Wolf Street Economics Serious Economics. No Hype. Just Signals. Introduction: Borrowing on an Industrial Scale In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the United States will have borrowed another $100,000. With a national debt exceeding $35 trillion and growing by the second, the U.S. government has become the largest borrower in human history. And yet, global investors still line up to lend. For now. This article unpacks how America’s debt machine functions, why the world continues to fund it, and what happens if that trust begins to fray. How the Debt Machine Works U.S. government debt falls into two categories: Intragovernmental holdings – money the government owes to itself, mainly for Social Security and federal pensions. Publicly held debt – this is the critical piece. It'...