Thank God, no.

The apocalyptics are shouting about our $40 trillion debt – which is enormous for sure, and much larger than is healthy. But $7.7 trillion of it is “intergovernmental debt” that the government owes to itself. Federal debt held by the public is about $32 trillion.

That’s still a big number. But our national wealth is roughly $180 trillion. So our debt to asset ratio – which has been rising, is still less than 25%, and much lower than at the end of World War II.

This chart, which goes through 2024, shows what’s going on.

We’re hardly going broke. This is also a reminder of why growth, prosperity and a rise in asset values are the best debt mitigation strategy.

Too many of our conservative friends obsess about the debt and in the name of “fiscal responsibility” even support tax increases, instead of the REAL problem, which is out of control government SPENDING.

Milton Friedman used to say that he’d prefer a budget half as large as it is with a budget deficit, rather than a balanced budget with government spending twice as large. We agree.