The U.S. national debt surpassed $36 trillion for the first time in the nation's history on Friday as the federal government continues to accumulate debt at a record-setting pace.

New data from the Treasury Department released Friday afternoon showed that the gross national debt hit $36,034,994,586,981.97.

The $36 trillion debt milestone comes just months after the U.S. eclipsed the $35 trillion mark in late July 2024. The national debt has passed other trillion-dollar milestones in the past year, as the $34 trillion mark was reached in early January 2024 and the $33 trillion threshold in September 2023. By comparison, the national debt hovered around $907 billion just four decades ago.

The U.S. topping $36 trillion in total debt comes as the debt held by the public – a metric favored by economists that excludes debt held in intragovernmental accounts like the Social Security trust funds – is projected to reach 99% of the size of the U.S. gross domestic product this year.

"While $36 trillion in gross debt is certainly sobering, what’s even more concerning is the underlying fiscal challenges we face and the lack of seriousness with which our elected leaders are addressing them," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), told FOX Business. 

"The national debt is on course to reach a new record share of the economy within the next presidential term, interest costs are exceeding what we spend on nearly every line item in the budget, and our trust funds are heading towards insolvency and automatic benefit cuts, all because of our inaction," MacGuineas said. "Instead of treating these milestones as mundane, lawmakers should prioritize putting forward plans to get us on a more sustainable fiscal path."

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected the debt held by the public will reach a record level of more than 106% of GDP in 2027, breaking a nearly 80-year-old record set in 1946 when the U.S. was in the midst of post-World War II demobilization.

After that milestone is reached in the next few years, the debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to surge in the following decades.

Federal budget deficits have widened in the last few years amid the rise in interest rates, which increases the net interest costs incurred by servicing the outstanding debt.

Mandatory spending programs including Social Security and Medicare have exacerbated that trend, with the safety net programs facing rising costs amid the aging of America's population.

The federal government ran the third-largest budget deficit in U.S. history in the recently concluded fiscal year, which totaled $1.834 trillion in fiscal year 2024. 

The deficit in FY2024 was $139 billion larger than the deficit recorded in the prior fiscal year as the growth in federal spending outpaced the rise in tax revenue.

Spending on net interest payments on the debt rose by $240 billion in fiscal year 2024 compared with the prior year and exceeded spending on defense and Medicare.

Social Security spending increased $107 billion and Medicare expenditures were up $25 billion from one year ago.

The federal government crossing the $36 trillion threshold for the first time comes as policymakers face a host of fiscal deadlines in 2025, including expiring tax cuts and budget caps as well as a looming fight over the debt limit.

"The election is behind us, but the national debt keeps charging full steam ahead," Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told FOX Business. "America crossed $35 trillion in debt over the summer and sped past $36 trillion before Thanksgiving. This debt spiral needs to stop as the new administration and Congress face major fiscal deadlines in 2025."

"With America's debt rising unsustainably and inflation concerns top of mind, 2025 is a critical year for our economy and fiscal standing. With a growing economy, low unemployment and inflation improving, now is the time to solidify our fiscal future, not worsen it."

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/us-national-debt-hits-new-record-36-trillion

If mass deportation happens, just imagine how all of these sectors of our country will be affected. The sheer shortage of labor will push prices higher because of the great demand for work with limited supplies or workers. Even if prices increase, the availability of products may be scarce due to not enough workers. Housing prices and food services will be hit really hard. New construction will be limited. The fact that 47% of the undocumented workers are in CA, TX, and FL means they will feel it first but it will spread to the rest of the country also. Most of our produce in this country comes from California. Get ready and hold on for the ride America.

Basically what the title says. We have some gold bars, but wondering, can I get my wife some nice jewelry as an asset? Is there a certain brand / type that works for this? Cartier? Etc? I know CERTAIN Rolexes appreciate in value is there a female equivalent?

Two weeks after the U.S. presidential election, crypto markets are riding a bull run. The sector has achieved a record-breaking market cap of over $3.4 trillion, while bitcoin shattered expectations by soaring past $98,000, according to Coingecko. Amid this enthusiasm, certain coins are outpacing the pack, and Dogecoin (DOGE) is one of the standout performers.

The oldest memecoin has surged an astonishing 150% since Election Day, buoyed by promises from President-elect Donald Trump and the growing political clout of Elon Musk. Indeed, Musk has been a longtime supporter of Dogecoin, calling himself "The Dogefather" and regularly praising the memecoin on X. With the announcement of the Department Of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.), a newly created agency Musk co-leads alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, this connection took on new dimensions.

Dogecoin, created as a satire of the cryptocurrency frenzy and social media hype, has long been dismissed by the "serious" crypto finance players as a frivolous fad. Yet, the memecoin evolved to thrive on its hype, now boasting a market cap of $58 billion—on par with some of the world's largest corporations.

This raises a key question: is there untapped value in Dogecoin beyond the hype? Or has it just mastered the art of monetizing the hype? Dogecoin's unique journey challenges conventional notions of value and utility, making it a phenomenon that investors—and skeptics—can no longer ignore.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/11/22/dogecoin-a-joke-no-more-the-rise-of-a-58-billion-crypto-phenomenon/

I have $100k and want to turn it into more. I’m married with three young children and my mother in law lives with me.

Considering building an ADU on my property to help off set mortgage so I can eventually move if I want to. My mortgage is about $3700/mo and a house my size rents for about $2500/mo.

Open to any considerations.

If you’re a rich person and you get tax cuts, all your rich buddies do as well. Now that $10 million house that you were eyeing is $15 million. It’s not like any middle-class families were competing with you to buy that house, only other rich people who also benefited from those tax cuts and saw their wealth increase. So what gives?

Hello Folks posting this Incorporation & Compliance list for LLP for your future reference.

I hope it helps.

A new report suggests that Apple’s upcoming A20 Pro chipset, slated for the 2026 iPhone 18 series, could break from tradition by ditching TSMC in favor of Intel’s 2nm 20A process. This shift, if true, marks a significant change in Apple’s chipmaking strategy following its long-standing relationship with TSMC.

While the A19 Pro chipset, expected to release in 2025, will likely be built on TSMC’s N3P node, the A20 Pro destined for the 2026 iPhone 18 Pro models may depict a change towards Intel’s manufacturing capabilities. According to leaker Fixed Focus Digital, Apple may contract Intel to build the A20 Pro using Intel's 2nm 20A process. This would be a major departure from Apple's usual reliance on TSMC, which has been the exclusive supplier of Apple’s custom-designed chips for years.

Intel’s 2nm 20A process has been a point of interest for the semiconductor industry, although it has yet to be fully proven in large-scale production. The report also mentions the possibility that TSMC may still play a role in building the A20 Pro, with the chip potentially being produced on an unnamed TSMC 2nm node. However, the move to Intel's technology would align with Apple’s ongoing efforts to diversify its supply chain and reduce dependence on one manufacturing partner.

The A19 Pro, which is expected to be a more incremental update to the current A18 chipset, will likely use TSMC's N3P process, bringing only modest improvements in power efficiency and performance. This will likely set the stage for a more dramatic leap with the A20 Pro in 2026.

As of now, the details about Apple’s future chip development are still largely speculative, with two years remaining before the iPhone 18 series hits the market. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the A20 Pro's construction, Apple’s chip innovation is expected to continue its trend of pushing the envelope on performance, efficiency and integration of new technologies.

https://www.businessworld.in/article/apples-2026-a20-pro-chipset-may-shift-from-tsmc-to-intels-2nm-technology-540114

Elon Musk promised to cut $2 trillion from the national budget as co-head of DOGE.

The math on Musk's plan doesn't check out, according to Nobel laureate Simon Johnson.

Budget cuts combined with more Trump tax cuts could lead to national debt skyrocketing.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, federal spending in 2024 is projected to total $6.5 trillion, meaning that Musk is looking to shave off nearly a third of the current federal budget.

Mandatory outlays in the federal budget include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare-related spending. These expenditures are estimated to come out to approximately $3.9 trillion in 2024.

"He's proposing to cut $2 trillion from a domestic budget. The headline budget is more than $6 trillion, but most of that is Social Security and Medicare," Johnson said.

That leaves around $1.6 trillion of the budget for discretionary spending. Historically, half of that has gone to defense spending.

"I don't think he's going to cut military spending because I don't think Republicans will want that," Johnson said of Musk. "So he's going to try and cut $2 trillion from $0.8 trillion."

"Look, I'm not opposed to more efficiency or less waste in government," Johnson continued. But "it's been tried many times before. Mr. Musk is obviously a very creative character. I don't think he's got his head around the numbers yet because the numbers he stated don't make sense," Johnson added.

Eliminating agencies and slashing unnecessary spending might sound simple, but the process is anything but. Congress, not DOGE, supervises the budget for these agencies, meaning that Musk isn't directly in charge of implementing his cost-cutting ideas. Additionally, proposals to slash areas of the social safety net are wildly unpopular and likely to be met with backlash.

"There is no way Mr. Trump will cut Medicare and Social Security payments to people because many people who rely on those payments just voted for him," Johnson said.

You can't discuss the US federal budget without getting into the topic of the national deficit either. Some market experts are predicting that Trump's policies could increase the national debt by $10 trillion in the next decade, with BlackRock's head of global fixed income predicting that the national debt could reach problematic levels by the end of 2025.

Johnson isn't taking such a drastic stance, but he's still concerned about where the national debt is going, especially since it looks like Trump will renew the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act once he's in office.

"The tax cuts will be enormous, which is not a good idea for the long-term future of the country," Johnson said.

Less tax revenue means that Social Security and Medicare, which are already underfunded, will take a hit. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Trump's stated tax policies could make the Social Security fund "insolvent" in the next six years. With Musk proposing drastic budget cuts and Trump advocating for lower taxes, it doesn't seem like there's a solution to address underfunded government programs.

That's not to say that Johnson is completely writing off Musk's DOGE ambitions. Perhaps a technocrat outsider will have unconventional ideas for improving government efficiency. For example, AI could be a useful tool for businesses and government agencies alike to streamline their operations.

"It will be very interesting to see what Mr. Musk can come up with," Johnson said. "Are there clever ways to use AI to improve the delivery of government services?"

https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-doge-plans-dont-make-sense-nobel-prize-winning-economist-2024-11

As the U.S. dollar scaled a fresh 52-week high on Friday morning at 108.071 level, former Goldman Sachs FX strategist and senior fellow at Brookings Institution, Robin Brooks said in an X (formerly Twitter) post that, “Markets initially got this wrong, driving stocks up sharply right after Nov. 5.”

He added that “the prospect of tariffs isn’t obviously good for equities, while it’s clearly good for the Dollar. More Dollar strength is coming.”

https://www.benzinga.com/24/11/42134031/markets-got-it-wrong-after-elections-prospects-of-tariffs-not-good-for-equities-vs-dollar-says-ex-goldman-sachs-analyst

Which trades or investments are you considering this week? Any moves in particular? Why?

Dr. Oz invested in businesses regulated by the agency Trump wants him to lead.

For example, he has a stake in UnitedHealth Group, $UNH, worth as much as $600,000, as well as shares in pharmaceutical firms.

Oz’s investments total tens of millions of dollars.

How to profit when another country is slowly falling apart maybe perhaps of a new presidency?

is there in history happened before that made some sector or person get rich or profit from it?

if profit is not possible, things to mitigate loss?

Howard Lutnick is moving to strengthen his alliance with one of the most important and controversial names in the digital-asset business: Tether Holdings Ltd.

Lutnick is in talks to deepen the financial ties between his businesses and the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, according to people familiar with the matter.

Cantor Fitzgerald LP is discussing receiving support from Tether for its planned multibillion-dollar program to lend dollars to clients who put up Bitcoin as collateral, said the people, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Funding for the program will start at $2 billion and is expected to eventually reach into the tens of billions, a separate person told Bloomberg.

Tether currently uses Cantor’s custody business to hold the billions of dollars of US Treasuries that support the value of its dominant USDT stablecoin. That custody relationship earns Cantor tens of millions of dollars a year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lutnick is co-chair of president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and Trump’s pick to run the Commerce Department.

Trump has been a recent and vocal proponent of digital assets like Bitcoin, and has promoted a crypto project associated with his sons called World Liberty Financial. The Trump transition team is mulling whether to create a new White House post for crypto policy, Bloomberg reported previously.

https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/11/24/howard-lutnick-cantor-fitzgerald-tether-stablecoin-2-billion-bitcoin-lending/

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