America’s Ballooning Fiscal Gap Threatens to Blow Up Its Future

Lau Vegys, Doug Casey’s Crisis Investing

Today’s chart shows the path of U.S. government spending and revenues from 1989 to now, along with projections for the next 31 years.

See that gap between the lines? That’s where our debt comes from. Every year, when spending outpaces revenue, it’s like putting the difference on the national credit card.

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If you take a closer look, the late ’90s and early 2000s were the only time the government’s books weren’t a total mess. Revenues were up, spending was under control. We even toyed with the idea of paying off the national debt. Seems like a fairy tale now, doesn’t it?

But then the 2000s rolled in, and things took a turn. Wars, bailouts, you name it. The gap between what the government was taking in and what it was spending started to widen alarmingly. And just when we thought we’d seen it all, 2020 hit us like a freight train. COVID, lockdowns, stimulus checks galore. Government spending skyrocketed to 30% of GDP.

That was a recipe for a debt explosion, and that’s exactly what happened.

To put it in numbers, our national debt jumped from about $23 trillion at the start of 2020 to over $27 trillion by the end of the year. That’s a staggering $4.5 trillion increase in just one year! For perspective, it took the U.S. over 200 years to accumulate its first $4 trillion in debt.

At writing, we’re staring at $35.67 trillion and counting in national debt, with interest payments exceeding $1 trillion for the first time in history.

That’s grim, but the future doesn’t look any brighter. See that orange line stretching into the distance? That’s government spending, and it’s on an upward trajectory with no signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, the black line – that’s revenue – is barely budging. We’re looking at a gap that’s widening year after year, with no end in sight.

By 2054, we’re looking at spending levels above 30% of GDP with revenues hovering under 20%. This means we’ll be adding trillions to the national debt every single year, and that’s probably a best-case scenario. ~~ Lau Vegys, Doug Casey’s Crisis Investing

Lau Vegys, Doug Casey’s Crisis Investing

Today’s chart shows the path of U.S. government spending and revenues from 1989 to now, along with projections for the next 31 years.

See that gap between the lines? That’s where our debt comes from. Every year, when spending outpaces revenue, it’s like putting the difference on the national credit card.

Turn Your Images On

That was a recipe for a debt explosion, and that’s exactly what happened.

At writing, we’re staring at $35.67 trillion and counting in national debt, with interest payments exceeding $1 trillion for the first time in history.

Kevin Warsh, former Fed governor and one-time Morgan Stanley hand, is officially President Trump’s pick to replace Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The choice is meant to be brazen, if not entirely unexpected. Despite having been nominated in his first go in the Oval Office, Trump has been gunning for Jerome Powell since Day One of his second term.

Now, Warsh, whose libertarian-leaning critique of the Fed has hovered like a drone over Jackson Hole for years, will succeed Powell should the Senate confirm him before May 15, 2026.

The analysis we’ve published of the main drivers for gold applies to silver and bitcoin, too. The latter two, however, remain more speculative and gap down and spike up more dramatically.

If you’re leveraged to silver, whether through mining companies, ETFs, or the like, it may be prudent to take some profits off the table. And keep your eyes peeled for future moves upward.

In one refrain from our book Empire of Debt, we warned that late-stage credit systems always suffer the same fate: the debasement of money disguised as growth. Ray Dalio said the quiet part out loud in an interview yesterday:

“If you depreciate the money, it makes everything look like it’s going up.”

Which is precisely why the markets get jittery at the top. And why politics are as wacky and polarized as they have been.

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is demanding higher taxes on the rich to plug budget holes left by former Mayor Adams. He wants billions from Albany. Governor Hochul has yet to weigh in.

In California, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and other Silicon Valley billionaires are backing a new pro-business PAC to fight a proposed 5% wealth tax on the state’s 200 richest residents. Larry Page has already moved to Florida. The line to Nevada is forming.

Ray Dalio, again, with the map:

“When governments run large deficits and the debt is no longer bought willingly, they have two choices: raise taxes and cut spending, or print money. Those that can print, do. Those that can’t, fall apart.”

Populist politics surge. Moderates vanish. Scapegoating begins. The wealth gap widens until it becomes an impassable chasm.

The S&P 500 topped 7,000 for the first time yesterday, adding to its stack of all-time highs this year and continuing the trend set in 2025.

But… those highs are measured in dollars. When priced in gold, which topped $5,500 — also a historic number— this morning, stocks are actually at a 12-year low.