a. Amount of National Debt

The nation’s debt now stands at nearly $34.4 trillion, as of Wednesday. Since June, the last two $1 trillion jumps occurred in about 100 days. [PUBLISHED FRI, MAR 1 2024]

Moody’s Investors Service lowered its ratings outlook on the U.S. government to negative from stable in November due to the rising risks of the country’s fiscal strength.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/01/the-us-national-debt-is-rising-by-1-trillion-about-every-100-days.html

The growing debt will “slow economic growth, drive up interest payments,” and “heighten the risk of a fiscal crisis,” the CBO warns.
https://reason.com/2024/03/21/the-national-debt-is-a-national-security-issue/

As of March 29, 2024 at 4:00CDT, debt level was $266,950 per U.S. taxpayer.
https://www.usdebtclock.org/

b. Interest on National Debt

 In 2023, the U.S. government spent a total of $875 billion on  the interest on public debt.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/246439/interest-expense-on-us-public-debt/

Under current policy, the United States has about 20 years for corrective action after which no amount of future tax increases or spending cuts could avoid the government defaulting on its debt whether explicitly or implicitly (i.e., debt monetization producing significant inflation). This time frame is the “best case” scenario for the United States, under markets conditions where participants believe that corrective fiscal actions will happen ahead of time. If, instead, they started to believe otherwise, debt dynamics would make the time window for corrective action even shorter.
https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu › issues › 2023 › 10 › 6 › when-does-federal-debt-reach-unsustainable-levels

c. Is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, & South Africa) a threat to U.S. dollar?

At their first summit in 2009, the BRICS states called for a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. In January 2024, BRICS admitted Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia as new member states.

The expanded group has a combined population of about 3.5 billion, or 45% of the world’s inhabitants. Combined, members’ economies are worth more than $28.5tn – about 28% of the global economy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66525474

Thirty-four countries have submitted an expression of interest in joining the bloc of major emerging economies.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/china/brics-membership-applications-china-russia-intl-hnk/index.html

The potential impact of a new BRICS currency on the US dollar could accelerate the trend toward de-dollarization. This could have significant implications for the North American economy and investors operating within it.
https://investingnews.com/brics-currency/

But those threats are in fact pretty tame compared to the threat to the dollar stemming from the US itself, citing the risk of “severe deterioration” in the US’s financial and economic situation.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/de-dollarization-dollar-dominance-us-debt-economy-brics-rival-currency-2024-2?op=1

(This is crazy! How did this happen in such a short time? See How Did We Get Here?)