Washington now adds roughly US$91,000 in fresh borrowing every second
Total United States federal debt passed US$40tn for the first time on Tuesday, doubling in less than a decade.
The US Treasury Department put total public debt outstanding at US$40.047tn, split between US$32.266tn of securities held by the public and US$7.782tn in intra-governmental holdings, Reuters reported.
In comparison, Canadian federal market debt will reach $1.74tn by the end of 2026-27, the Department of Finance Canada projected in its Spring Economic Update 2026.
According to Reuters, the American figure has more than doubled from US$19.95tn when US President Donald Trump was first sworn in during January 2017, with roughly one-third of that increase tied to COVID-19 pandemic borrowing under Trump and former president Joe Biden.
Congress's Joint Economic Committee calculates US debt has grown by about US$7.9bn a day over the past year, or roughly US$91,000 per second, the Financial Times reported.
Canada's federal debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio will rise from 41.3 percent in 2025-26 to 42.5 percent in 2030-31, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) said in its June 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, against US debt held by the public that now roughly matches the size of the American economy, according to the Financial Times.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement carried by Reuters that the debt does not sit only on government ledgers and finds its way into household pocketbooks.
The more the US borrows, MacGuineas told the outlet, "the more we exacerbate inflation" and crowd out other budget priorities.
She said the US$40tn mark arrived less than five months after debt reached US$39tn.
Yields on 30-year US Treasuries hit their highest level since 2007 on Tuesday, CNN reported.
According to the Financial Times, the move came days after a US$25bn auction of the same maturity cleared at the steepest yield since 2001,
The term premium on 10-year US Treasuries rose this week to its highest in more than a dozen years, Reuters reported.
Foreign investors, who hold close to one-third of all Treasuries, have trimmed demand over the past year, John Canavan, lead financial market analyst at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note cited by the news site.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday the department will at least double its buyback operations for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to a minimum of US$4bn per operation.
Yields fell after the announcement, with the 10-year note closing down 5.7 basis points at 4.647 percent and the 30-year bond down 9 basis points at 5.196 percent, CNBC reported.
Interest payments will top US$1tn this American fiscal year, a record, and have more than tripled over the past five years, Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told CNN.
Goldwein compared the milestone to a flashing check-engine light in comments to the Financial Times.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan bookkeeper for US lawmakers, estimates Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will add another US$4.7tn in American debt, according to Reuters.
The Supreme Court's ruling that some of Trump's tariffs were illegal forced Washington to refund more than US$160bn to importers, the New York Times reported.
Trump dismissed concerns about bond market volatility when asked at the White House, saying the country is powering through what he called ridiculous interest rates, according to Reuters.
Bessent acknowledged last week that US deficits are moving in the wrong direction, the New York Times reported, citing military spending tied to the war with Iran and tariff refunds.
Michael Peterson, chief executive of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told CNN the US will reach US$50tn within six years on its current path.
The Department of Finance Canada said Canada holds the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7 and one of only two AAA-equivalent credit ratings in the group.
