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Showing Original Post only (View all)The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media (somehow) missed it. [View all]
https://fortune.com/2026/03/23/us-government-insolvent-fiscal-crisis-fix/https://web.archive.org/web/20260323190551/https://fortune.com/2026/03/23/us-government-insolvent-fiscal-crisis-fix/
By Steve H. Hanke
and David M. Walker
March 23, 2026, 11:14 AM ET
Steve Hanke is a professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Board of Directors at the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation. He is the co-editor, with Barry W. Poulson and John Merrifield, of Public Debt Sustainability: International Perspectives (Lexington Books, 2022). David M. Walker is the former Comptroller General of the United States and the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation.
The U.S. government is insolvent. Thats not hyperbole its the conclusion drawn directly from the Treasury Departments own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2025, released last week to near-total media silence. The numbers: $6.06 trillion in total assets against $47.78 trillion in total liabilities as of September 30, 2025.
Importantly, the $47.78 trillion in reported liabilities does not include the unfunded obligations of social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare those are disclosed separately in the off-balance-sheet Statement of Social Insurance (SOSI).
The governments consolidated balance sheet position, excluding the SOSI, deteriorated by nearly $2.07 trillion between FY 2024 and FY 2025, reaching a staggering negative $41.72 trillion. Total liabilities are now nearly eight times the value of reported assets. The largest drivers were a $2 trillion increase in federal debt and interest payable (now $30.33 trillion) and a $438.8 billion increase in federal employee and veteran benefits payable (now $15.47 trillion).
snip
Congress has clearly lost control of the nations finances. America is facing a fiscal catastrophe. The reckoning, long deferred, is becoming impossible to ignore.
Importantly, the $47.78 trillion in reported liabilities does not include the unfunded obligations of social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare those are disclosed separately in the off-balance-sheet Statement of Social Insurance (SOSI).
The governments consolidated balance sheet position, excluding the SOSI, deteriorated by nearly $2.07 trillion between FY 2024 and FY 2025, reaching a staggering negative $41.72 trillion. Total liabilities are now nearly eight times the value of reported assets. The largest drivers were a $2 trillion increase in federal debt and interest payable (now $30.33 trillion) and a $438.8 billion increase in federal employee and veteran benefits payable (now $15.47 trillion).
snip
Congress has clearly lost control of the nations finances. America is facing a fiscal catastrophe. The reckoning, long deferred, is becoming impossible to ignore.

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The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media (somehow) missed it. [View all]
usonian
Mar 23
OP
That's a novel idea. Don't tax them, don't deport them. Sell them off, factories and all.
bucolic_frolic
Mar 23
#2
Governmental accounting differs from business accounting. Not just a little either.
twodogsbarking
Mar 23
#5
Not really news just the debt numbers climb a bit. Should be a plank in the Dem platform to address for some time now.
dutch777
Mar 23
#6
Yep, that's exactly what he's doing - running it like those 6 businesses of his that went bankrupt.
TheRickles
Mar 23
#10
And bezos litteraly gave like $40 millions to the nude model in the Epstein circle.
Justice matters.
Mar 23
#18
The national debt... crossed $39 trillion--almost doubling since Trump vowed to erase it
Justice matters.
Mar 23
#21