As U.S. debt hits $40 trillion, Americans will foot the bill: $700 a month for retirees, and homebuyers could take a $53,000 hit, report finds

Treasury data confirmed last night that U.S. national debt now stands at $40 trillion, with the government now expected to spend more than $1 trillion in interest on the debt in the fiscal year of 2026. Debt hawks have been warning policymakers for some time that the nation’s fiscal path is unsustainable, and the issue is increasingly rising up voters’ agendas in the run-up to midterms later this year.A new report from The Conference Board throws the issue into a new light for consumers: The potential impact on their personal finances if policymakers continue borrowing at the current pace.

The Conference Board modeled a series of scenarios: Baseline (using Congressional Budget Office data based on current trends), a good-case (in which federal deficits are cut roughly in half, in line with current targeting proposals), and a bad-case (in which deficit levels grow to 9% of GDP rather than the current 6% to 7%).

The Conference Board also modeled two financial crisis scenarios—a default and an interest rate shock—which economists like Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio have long been concerned about.

Even dismissing the most extreme negative outcomes, consumers still stand to lose thousands if policymakers don’t act to reduce........

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