$ worth of everyday goods inFederal debt measured against everything the country produces, in compared to —
I was born in 1957. Try your own birth year. — Kerry Lutz
Defaults to 3.2%/yr — CPI-U’s own 1913–2026 average. A projection, not a forecast.
what a 1957 dollar's buying power has done since, measured this way
A dollar in 2026 buys what 8.5¢ did in 1957.
U.S. national debt · counting live
About $40.12 trillion, rising about $85,728 a second, or about 123% of annual output.
+$85,728/sec · 123% of GDP · from Treasury’s Sep 2, 2026 close