America’s Empire of Money Has Reached the Endgame

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—We did it Joe!  It took a tremendous push down the stretch, but the U.S. national debt was able to hit the 34 trillion dollar mark before the end of 2023.  At this moment I am just so overwhelmed that I don’t know who to thank first.  Over the past few years, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Chucky Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy and so many other hard working spenders have been instrumental in helping us reach this remarkable achievement.  And we never would have gotten here without the relentless help of CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post and all of the other mainstream news outlets that kept assuring the American people that it was okay to steal trillions of dollars from our children and our grandchildren.

Of course I am being quite facetious.  The truth is that what we are doing to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal.  We are literally committing national suicide, but each election cycle most of the same big spending politicians just keep winning over and over again.

Those on the other side would argue that it has been absolutely necessary to borrow and spend so much money. If we had not propped up the U.S. economy with giant mountains of borrowed money, it would have collapsed long ago.

In addition, spending so much money allows us to project military and economic power all over the planet.  If we only spent what we brought in, America’s standing in the world would be greatly reduced.

Having the primary reserve currency of the world is an enormous source of power, but now that power is fading.

Nations all over the globe are starting to move away from using the U.S. dollar in international trade, and they are becoming a lot more hesitant to buy our debt.

You can only borrow and spend so much before the entire Ponzi scheme collapses, and at this moment we are more than 34 trillion dollars in debt…

US national debt has reached a record high – hitting $34 trillion for the first time in history.

Data published by the Treasury Department Tuesday showed that outstanding federal borrowing soared to $34.001 trillion on December 29, just weeks ahead of Congress deadlines for new federal funding plans.

The staggering figure, which is a major point of contention between Republicans and Democrats, is equal to $101,233 in federal debt for every person in America, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

So if there are four people living in your household, your share of the national debt is more than $400,000.

And every day the debt gets even larger.  As Wolf Richter has pointed out, the size of the national debt has increased by 2.5 trillion dollars in just the last seven months…

The total US national debt spiked by $1.0 trillion in 15 weeks since September 15, to $34.0 trillion, according to the Treasury Department’s figures this afternoon. In the seven months since the debt ceiling was lifted, the national debt spiked by $2.5 trillion.

These are huge gigantic numbers that are piling up as a result of the incredible hard-to-fathom daredevil reckless shake-your-head deficit spending by Congress.

Overall, the U.S. national debt has grown by $6.25 trillion since Joe Biden entered the White House.

It took the first 225 years of U.S. history for the U.S. national debt to reach the 6 trillion dollar mark, and now we have added more than 6 trillion dollars to the debt in less than 3 years.

This is what the endgame looks like.

We are in a debt spiral that is totally out of control, and there is no way that this story is going to end well.

And despite the fact that we are endlessly pumping colossal piles of cash into the economy, our economic conditions continue to deteriorate.

On Wednesday, we learned that U.S. job openings have fallen “to the lowest level in more than two years”…

U.S. job openings dropped in November to the lowest level in more than two years, the latest evidence that the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hike campaign is continuing to cool the labor market.

That is a sign that the economy is getting worse.

And more large companies continue to lay off workers.  For example, Xerox just announced that it will be laying off 15 percent of its workforce…

Xerox on Wednesday announced it will cut 15% of its workforce as part of a plan to implement a new organizational structure and operating model.

Xerox, which offers digital printing and document management technologies, had about 20,500 employees as of Dec. 31, 2022, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on this figure, Wednesday’s layoffs will affect about 3,075 employees.

Shares of Xerox closed down more than 12% following the announcement Wednesday.

So what can we do to “get the economy going again”?

Well, we can follow the example of the federal government and borrow and spend even more money.

Of course much of the nation is already drowning in debt.  According to one recent survey, only about half the country will be able to pay off their December credit card balances in full…

Only half of America’s credit card customers believe they can pay off their December balance in full, according to an industry index, signaling a low ebb in “credit card confidence” as the nation emerges from the holidays.

The LendingTree Credit Card Confidence Index, a monthly survey published since 2018 by the personal finance site, dipped to 51% in December, an all-time low.

In a nationally representative survey of 1,514 cardholders, only 51% voiced confidence that they could pay off their card balance this month. In November, the Confidence Index stood at 58%.

Our forefathers handed us the keys to the greatest economic machine in world history.

But that was never enough for us.

We always had to have more, and so we just kept borrowing and spending.

Now the endgame has arrived, and it is going to be excruciatingly painful.

U.S. consumers are drowning in record levels of debt, U.S. corporations are drowning in record levels of debt, state and local governments are drowning in record levels of debt, and the federal government is drowning in record levels of debt.

America’s empire of money was nice while it lasted, but now the jig is up and the collapse that is looming is truly going to be one for the history books.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.