Debt, billionaires and a widening wealth gap

A little over two weeks ago, on April 7, the U.S. national debt crossed $39 trillion. Since then, another $150 billion has already been added to the ledger. While major news outlets missed the milestone, every trillion is worth mentioning.

America is now $39,000,000,000,000 in debt. It took roughly 200 years to accumulate the first $1 trillion. Now, we add that in a matter of months. Compounding the problem, the U.S. now spends more than $1 trillion a year just on interest to service its debt — more than the entire defense budget.

For context, net interest outlays were equivalent to 22.1% of total revenues through Q1 of FY 2026.

The debt clock keeps ticking. The numbers keep rising. And while life goes on, we must ask: what kind of life will it be? And for whom?

Well, the answer could be simple, or complicated, depending on the angle you take. The world could soon have 4,000 billionaires.

Knight Frank’s Wealth Report estimates that the number of billionaires worldwide could rise to nearly 4,000 by 2031. There are currently 3,110 USD billionaires globally. That number is expected to rise by 25% over the next five years, reaching 3,915. The number of people with at least $30 million in assets is also climbing fast, rising from 162,191 in 2021 to 713,626 today. Saudi Arabia is expected to see the fastest growth in billionaires, with the number projected to jump from 23 in 2026 to 65 by 2031. Poland is also forecast to more than double, from 13 to 29, while Sweden could see an 81% increase, from 32 to 58.

At the same time, the wealth gap continues to widen. According to the latest World Inequality Report, fewer than 60,000 people, just 0.001% of the global population, own three times as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity.

Inflation, rising housing costs, and a weakening job market are increasingly squeezing average households, in the US and globally. 

Sources: Valerie Noel, ZeroHedge, knightfrank, finews, The Kobeissi Letter