Tom
Olympian Mortgage Assistant
Powered by Olympian Mortgage AI
The US is in a league of its own when it comes to its debt burden, as rating agencies bemoan ‘long
America's debt just surpassed the size of its entire economy. That could mean higher mortgage rates, costlier loans, and government spending ever more sque
Fortune is a global media organization dedicated to helping its readers, viewers, and attendees succeed big in business through unrivaled access and best-in-class storytelling.
By Tristan Bove,
The U.S. is now unmatched in a regrettable category. Among rich and spend-happy nations that are globally seen as safe investments, the U.S. beats out the competition when it comes to the size of its debt burden, as the nation’s public liabilities have exceeded the size of its economy for the first time since World War II.
On Thursday, the nonpartisan watchdog Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) announced that U.S. debt held by the public, estimated to be $31.27 trillion, officially surpassed the country’s annual GDP of $31.22 trillion in March, basing its analysis on new data released this week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Rising debt comes with a long list of economic risks, including the threat that the cost of servicing that debt might crowd out other essential government spending. Another consequence would be a deterioration of the country’s once-top tier credit rating, a scenario that could lead to higher borrowing costs and even more constrained government spending. After the CRFB’s announcement, one of the world’s foremost rate-setters warned how close that scenario is to becoming reality.
The U.S.’s credit rating—a measure of a country’s creditworthiness and expected ability to repay debt—risks slipping due to its high debt burden, analysts from Fitch Ratings, a rating agency, warned in a report Thursday. Fitch currently maintains the U.S. at a AA+ rating, having downgraded it from its premier AAA rating in 2023 due to continued political run-ins over the U.S. debt ceiling that repeatedly risked sparking a default on debt.
“Structurally large fiscal deficits will keep the U.S.’s debt burden far above that of other ‘AA’ category sovereigns,” the analysts wrote.
The U.S. remains in AA territory largely thanks to the dollar’s reserve‑currency status, its deep capital markets, and continued prospects pointing at long‑term growth. But the analysts warned that years of fiscal malpractice were a growing constraint on the rating.
“The U.S.’s ‘AA+’/Stable rating already incorporates a long-running deterioration in governance, particularly in fiscal policymaking,“ analysts wrote.
Fitch projected a general government deficit amounting to 7.9% of GDP this year and in 2027, largely due to deep tax cuts implemented by the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and uncertainty as to whether tariff revenues will be able to plug the hole. The CRFB has previously estimated that President Donald Trump’s signature policy package will add $4.7 trillion to national debt through 2035. Tariffs were expected to plug the debt gap somewhat, but the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling against the bulk of Trump’s tariffs earlier this year could strip the government of $1.7 trillion through 2036, according to the CRFB, which could help place the U.S. on a trajectory of $58 trillion in debt over the next decade.
The country’s deteriorating credit rating comes with real implications for the economy. The importance of a strong credit rating is less about the letter grade itself than what it underpins: low borrowing costs for the federal government, which in turn keeps yields and rates lower across the economy.
As long as the U.S. can borrow cheaply, the cost of home mortgages, business loans, and corporate bonds tends to stay lower than it would in a country with weaker credit standing. A loss of premier rating status—or a slide into a less reliable tier—would raise the premium investors demand, translating into higher interest payments on the national debt and higher borrowing costs for households.
Fitch isn’t the only agency to have raised concerns about U.S. creditworthiness. Last year, Moody’s downgraded the U.S. from Aaa to Aa1. Aaa is reserved for the highest class of credit, with investors enjoying minimal risk. Wealthy nations including Canada, Australia, and several countries in the EU have this classification. Countries with an Aa1 rating are still considered to have a very low credit risk, but are seen as less stable and more vulnerable to change. Both Moody’s and Fitch’s rating systems are functionally the same.
Moody’s cited growing fiscal deficits and rising interest costs as reasons for the downgrade, a situation the agency did not expect to resolve quickly.
“Over the next decade, we expect larger deficits as entitlement spending rises while government revenue remains broadly flat,” Moody’s analysts wrote. “In turn, persistent, large fiscal deficits will drive the government’s debt and interest burden higher. The U.S.’s fiscal performance is likely to deteriorate relative to its own past and compared to other highly-rated sovereigns.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Comments / 115
ResponseCommunity PolicyYOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Fortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followers‘Cut up the credit cards:’ Congress is getting brutal about ‘embarrassing’ $31 trillion national debt
“It’s only going to get worse until we cut up the credit cards and get serious.”
960ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersAs economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin’s war on Ukraine. ‘We can’t even take one region’
“The overall mood is that’s enough already; you’ve been fighting for long enough.”
454ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersA $20B battleship the U.S. abandoned after WWII is back in Trump’s $1.5T defense budget. Experts say modern missiles will easily destroy it
President Trump's record defense budget includes a new class of battleships not seen since WWII.
177ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersThe American household just took an 81% margin cut. Wall Street hasn’t priced it in
The economy is treating the oil shock like a temporary inflation problem. It's actually a household solvency problem, and the risk is radiating.
1ShareBeing Liberal
user · 8.4K followersSubscribeTrump Trots JD Vance Out in Front of News Cameras and Makes Him Take the Fall for ‘Bad News’ on Iran Talks
Vice President JD Vance walked out of a high-stakes diplomatic meeting halfway across the world and delivered what he himself framed as “bad news.” But the real story isn’t just that talks with Iran collapsed, it’s who’s being positioned to own that failure.
187ShareLincoln Square Media
user · 5.0K followersSubscribeWhy the Trump Administration Is Closing 75% of U.S. Forest Research Facilities
The U.S. Forest Service, which manages 193 million acres of public land, is undergoing a sweeping restructuring under the Trump administration that will eliminate all regional offices, relocate its headquarters, and close roughly three-quarters of its research facilities—57 out of 77, according to multiple reports on the reorganization plan.
69ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersGen Z is rebelling against the economy with ‘disillusionomics,’ tackling near 6-figure debt by turning life into a giant list of income streams
Failed promises are reshaping how Gen Z approaches financial decisions and their role in the economy. Call it “disillusionomics,” Alice Lassman says.
91ShareBeing Liberal
user · 8.4K followersSubscribe'It’s Only a Matter of Time': New Warning Signals Trouble for Kash Patel Inside Trump’s Inner Circle
A fresh round of instability inside Trump’s orbit is now zeroing in on one of the administration’s most controversial figures, and this time, the warning isn’t coming from anonymous chatter alone, but from a well-sourced report that suggests the clock may already be ticking.
27ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersClean energy’s winning argument is the one it refuses to make
Why don't clean energy advocates talk about how it's cheaper than fossil fuels? Affordability, not morality, is the argument that can actually win.
152ShareUSLife
user · 17.7K followersShe rang my doorbell at 5 AM for a freebie. I turned the high-pressure sprinklers on.
I posted a beautiful bookshelf on the LocalAll "Freebies" board, explicitly stating: Available on curb at 9:00 AM Saturday. No early birds. At 5:00 AM, my doorbell rang furiously. I looked out the window and saw my neighbor grinning and banging on the glass to "beat the rush." I didn't even open the door. I grabbed my phone, opened my smart home app, and activated the high-pressure lawn sprinklers. The heavy jets of freezing water hit her directly in the back. She shrieked, dropped her coffee cup on the concrete, and sprinted back to her house entirely soaked in the freezing morning air.
21ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersFed whisperer splits on Powell: A+ as steward, but ‘I don’t think you could give him high marks on the economy’
"I think they made a lot of mistakes under his leadership, on the economics and the monetary policy."
13ShareBeing Liberal
user · 8.4K followersSubscribeThe Email That Has Washington Watching Ghislaine Maxwell Very Closely
A newly surfaced email from inside federal prison is raising fresh questions about what secrets Ghislaine Maxwell may actually be holding, and how far she might be willing to go to use them.
76ShareMalcontent News
user · 6.0K followersSubscribeMoscow can't hide it anymore, Russia's economy is falling apart
The Big Story: Moscow can’t hide it anymore, Russia’s economy is finally falling apart. Dr. Robert Nigmatulin presented a grim assessment of the Russian economy at the Moscow Exchange Forum. He said Russians now have the lowest per capita salaries in Europe, and poverty in eastern Russia is worse than in the poorest regions of China.
26ShareLincoln Square Media
user · 5.0K followersSubscribeTrump's Civility Con Job Falls Apart
The MAGA brain trust, summoned to its keyboards like dyspeptic moths to a Twitter flame, settles on its message within roughly the time it takes Karoline Leavitt to blink her dull, porcine eyes. That message, in full: Democrats did this, shut up forever, and also, taxpayers should fund Donald’s $400 million party bunker.
20ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersYour company may be eligible for a tariff refund. Here’s how to claim it
Companies that paid IEEPA tariffs may be eligible for refunds through CBP’s ACE system, but experts say they should act quickly before claims pile up.
14ShareTrench Art
user · 9.3K followersSubscribeWhen The Russians Jam, Ukraine's Best Strike Drones Navigate By Themselves
What does a drone strike force do when communication is hard … or even sometimes impossible?. One answer: plan to occasionally lose the connection between man and machine. That’s what Ukraine’s special operations forces are doing. Ukrainian SOF’s best medium-range strike drones have backup navigation systems that take over when a direct connection to a distant human operator gets disrupted by weather, terrain or enemy electronic warfare.
5ShareBeing Liberal
user · 8.4K followersSubscribeHigh School Students Say ‘Hell No’ to Planned Appearance by Erika Kirk
Students at a Phoenix high school are pushing back hard against a planned appearance by Erika Kirk, setting off a fresh clash over politics in public schools, and raising new questions about why the conservative activist is now targeting younger audiences after struggling to draw crowds elsewhere.
Phoenix, AZ · 19dBible Insight
user · 25.1K followersWhy the "Mark of the Beast" is a total integration of your biology and the State.
The "Mark" isn't just a tattoo; it’s the ultimate Forensic Lockout. Revelation 13 describes a system where participation in the economy is impossible without a specific biological/digital signature. We are currently seeing the infrastructure for this—CBDCs, biometric IDs, and AI-driven social credit—being laid in real-time.
261ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersGen Z workers say showing up 10 minutes late to work is as good as on time—but baby boomer bosses have zero tolerance for tardiness, research reveals
No wonder bosses say Gen Z are hard to manage: While 70% of baby boomers have zero tolerance for any level of tardiness, in Gen Z’s eyes, 10 minutes late is right on time.
328ShareTrench Art
user · 9.3K followersSubscribeUkrainian Cruise Missiles Punched Right Through The Defenses Around A Critical Russian Electronics Factory
On the night of May 4, Ukrainian deep strike forces double-tapped Russia’s VNIIR-Progress electronics plant in Cheboksary, 600 miles from the Russian border. First, the Ukrainian army’s 19th Missile Brigade launched a barrage of Fire Point FP-5 cruise missiles. Later, the Ukrainians launched Antonov An-196 one-way attack drones.
6ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersOne economist’s ‘radical idea’ to solve the biggest energy crisis in history: a reverse OPEC
UMass Amherst economist Gregor Semieniuk says the U.S. is the most powerful country to make the idea work.
1ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersWarren Buffett says markets are like a church with a casino attached, but ‘we’ve never had people in a more gambling mood than now’
"But that doesn't mean that investing is terrible. It does mean that prices for an awful lot of things will look very silly."
17ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersThe clock is ticking as oil markets barrel toward nightmare scenarios with the West bracing for ‘tank bottoms’ and Iran racing to delay ‘tank tops’
The West and Iran are staring down two diametrically opposed oil market emergencies that could materialize in a matter of weeks.
298ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersEconomists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: avoid retiring early, study finds
“We should really think about the potential consequences of a really large-scale decline in employment,” UC Irvine economist David Neumark told Fortune.
ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersAmerica 250 Chair: Americans are giving less. July 4th can be a day to change that
As the U.S. turns 250, one idea could reverse decades of declining charitable giving and create a new tradition: the biggest giving day of the year.
ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersExclusive: AI grocery startup Vori raises $22 million to help independent retailers compete with Walmart and Amazon
With $500 million already processed through its platform, Vori is scaling fast as it targets underserved grocery operators.
ShareUSLife
user · 17.7K followersShe took my free grill, then demanded I scrub it. I rolled it back inside.
I listed a perfectly functioning, heavy-duty propane BBQ grill on the LocalAll "Freebies" map. A woman pulled up in her SUV. She opened the lid, scrunched her nose, and recoiled in disgust. "The grates are completely covered in grease," she complained loudly. "If you are offering community items, you need to bleach and power-wash them first. I am not putting this filthy thing in my clean car. Go get your cleaning supplies right now." She expected me to be her unpaid maid service for a free, multi-hundred-dollar item! I smiled politely. "You're absolutely right, it's not up to your sanitary standards," I said. I calmly grabbed the handle, pushed the heavy grill backwards into my garage, and hit the motorized door button. The heavy metal door rolled down, locking the grill inside while she stood frozen on the driveway.
7ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersEventbrite CEO sold her company for $500 million—without a job for the first time since 15, she’s playing chess with a robot and eyeing internships
Julia Hartz, the cofounder and CEO of ticketing platform Eventbrite, made a $500 million exit and is now considering her next career move as a free agent.
5ShareTrench Art
user · 9.3K followersSubscribeUkraine May Have Finally Hit Russia's Black Sea Missile Frigate
Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces may have finally landed a blow on the best warships left in the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It took months of trying. On Monday morning, what appear to be Fire Point FP-1s—propeller-driven one-way attack drones that normally carry 130-pound warheads as far as 600 miles under satellite and inertial navigation—barreled down on the Admiral Grigorovich-class missile frigate Admiral Makarov in the port of Novorossiysk, in southern Russia 275 miles from the front line in Ukraine.
5ShareFortune
partner publisher · 515.3K followersBofA throws cold water on AI apocalypse panic: 60% of today’s jobs didn’t exist in 1940
AI will reshape 840 million jobs, BofA says. That’s not the same as destroying them.
1ShareFortuneWebsiteNew York, NYFortune is a global media organization dedicated to helping its readers, viewers, and attendees succeed big in business through unrivaled access and best-in-class storytelling.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Source Reference
Originally published by NewsBreak
Related Insights
Future-Proof Your Financing
Experience the Speed of AI-Driven Mortgages
At Olympian Mortgage, we specialize in providing AI-driven, lightning-fast home financing solutions. Whether you're a first-time buyer or looking to refinance, our platform simplifies the complex mortgage journey into a few simple steps.