Solar NewtSources and credits
America's Debt, From Zero to $40 Trillion
America paid off its national debt exactly once, in 1835, and a depression followed within two years. Today the country owes $40 trillion and pays its lenders more interest than it pays its entire military. This page lists every source behind the video's claims and credits every piece of footage, image, sound and music in it.
Figures are dated in the video and below. Snapshot numbers were current when the video was locked in August 2026 and will move.
Chapters
- 0:00A banquet in 1835
- 1:47Part 1. The Only Zero
- 3:58240 years on one chart
- 5:33Part 2. The Machine: money in
- 6:54Money out, and the interest bill
- 8:41Part 3. The Price
- 10:34Part 4. The Lenders
- 12:21The case for calm
- 14:22Part 5. The Verdict
- 15:51The honest ending
Sources (45)
Grouped by the part of the story they support. Where the record is contested, the video says so: what caused the Panic of 1837 is still argued over, and the case that large public debt is survivable is given as what its proponents argue.
The only zero, 1781 to 1837
- Alexander Hamilton to Robert Morris, April 30, 1781 (Founders Online, National Archives)
- U.S. Treasury, Historical Debt Outstanding, annual series from 1790, including the 1835 ledger line, the return to borrowing in 1837 and the first trillion in 1981
- History.com, "The national debt reaches zero dollars," This Day in History, January 1
- NPR Planet Money, "When the U.S. Paid Off the Entire National Debt (And Why It Didn't Last)," April 15, 2011, later Episode 273
- Essays in Economic and Business History, vol. 25 (2007), "The Elimination of the National Debt in 1835 and the Meaning of Jacksonian Democracy," including Andrew Jackson's view of debt as a national curse
- Cato Journal, vol. 35, no. 2 (2015), on the 1835 debt payoff
- Lumen Learning, United States History I, "The Panic of 1837," on the public land sales boom of 1834 to 1836; Historical Statistics of the United States
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Specie Circular" (July 11, 1836) and the Deposit and Distribution Act of 1836
- Wikipedia, "Panic of 1837," and the standard histories it cites, on the Bank of England's rate rise, the cotton price fall and the bank suspensions of May 10, 1837
- Peter Temin, The Jacksonian Economy (1969); Peter L. Rousseau, "Jacksonian Monetary Policy, Specie Flows, and the Panic of 1837," NBER Working Paper 7528 (2000)
- U.S. Senate Historical Office, "The Attempt to Kill King Andrew," on the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson at the Capitol, January 30, 1835
240 years of borrowing
- Office of Management and Budget, Historical Tables, Table 7.1, Federal Debt at the End of Year, 1940 to 2031
- MeasuringWorth, U.S. GDP series, used for debt as a share of GDP before 1940
- Congressional Budget Office, The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2002 to 2011, January 2001
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-21-124, Financial Audit: Bureau of the Fiscal Service's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Schedules of Federal Debt
The debt today
- U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny: total public debt outstanding, debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings
- Trillion-dollar milestones as reported by the House Budget Committee (August 13, 2025), PBS NewsHour (October 2025) and Fortune (March 18, 2026)
- Joint Economic Committee, monthly debt update, from Treasury data
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Clock
Money in, money out
- Congressional Budget Office, Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2025
- Congressional Budget Office, The Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2025: An Infographic
- U.S. Treasury, Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2025 (final for FY2025) and January 2026
- Bipartisan Policy Center, Tariff Tracker
- Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Combined Statement of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances of the United States Government, FY2025, outlays by function (national defense, international affairs)
- Peter G. Peterson Foundation, interest costs on the national debt
- Fortune, "The U.S. government is spending $88 billion a month in interest on national debt," April 9, 2026
- KFF polling on how much of the federal budget Americans believe goes to foreign aid
- Social Security Administration, Fact Sheet on the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program
- NASA budget documents and The Planetary Society, "How much did the Apollo program cost?"
The price: ratings, projections and rates
- Moody's Ratings, rating action on the United States (Aaa to Aa1), May 16, 2025
- Congressional Budget Office, Estimated Budgetary Effects of Public Law 119-21 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), Relative to CBO's January 2025 Baseline
- Congressional Budget Office, The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2026 to 2036, February 2026
- Congressional Budget Office, The Long-Term Budget Outlook Data: 2026 to 2056, March 2026
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate (DGS10)
- U.S. Treasury, Average Interest Rates on U.S. Treasury Securities
The lenders, and the case for calm
- Federal Reserve, H.4.1 Factors Affecting Reserve Balances
- U.S. Treasury, Treasury International Capital (TIC) System, Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, current and historical tables
- Peter G. Peterson Foundation, who holds the national debt, from Treasury data
- Social Security Administration, trust fund data (OASI Trust Fund assets)
- Olivier Blanchard, "Public Debt and Low Interest Rates," American Economic Review 109(4), 2019
- Stephanie Kelton, The Deficit Myth, 2020
The verdict: the UK in 2022, and Japan
- HM Treasury, The Growth Plan 2022, September 23, 2022
- Bank of England, "Bank of England announces gilt market operation," September 28, 2022, and later statements on the operation
- International Monetary Fund, Japan: 2025 Article IV Consultation, Press Release and Staff Report, April 2025
- International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook database, 2022
Credits
- Archival filmApollo 11 launch, NASA, public domain. Prelinger Archives: “In the Suburbs,” “Master Hands,” “How They Make Money” and “American Look,” public domain.
- Period artworkE. W. Clay, “The Times” and “New Edition of Macbeth,” 1837, Library of Congress. City of Washington, 1834, Bennett after Cooke, National Gallery of Art. Henry Sargent, The Dinner Party, c. 1821, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Lithograph of the Indian Queen (Brown’s) Hotel, Library of Congress, and other period views of Washington, Library of Congress. All public domain.
- PortraitsThomas Hart Benton by F. T. L. Boyle, National Portrait Gallery. Via Wikimedia Commons: George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1797; Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1806; Andrew Jackson by Ralph E. W. Earl; Abraham Lincoln, 1863 photograph; Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944; and the official portraits of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. All public domain.
- Aerial imageryGoogle Earth: Pennsylvania Avenue, the U.S. Capitol, the Treasury, downtown Washington, the Federal Reserve’s Eccles Building, and a pull-out from Washington to the globe.
- Stock footageWashington Monument timelapse by Jonmallard, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Other footage from Storyblocks and Pexels, under license: Washington, the Treasury, currency printing, ports, markets, London, Tokyo and Beijing.
- MusicYouTube Audio Library: “Wandering Soul,” “Impossible Sacrifice,” “Forest Lullabye” and “Across Seas,” Asher Fulero; “On The Flip,” The Grey Room; “Aether,” Density & Time.
- SoundTitle sting, tuesdaynight; tick, soundshelfstudio; cash register, dragonstudio; riser, pop, click and stamp sounds (Pixabay). Crowd, glass, page, quill and coin sounds, YouTube Audio Library.