Professor Steve Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University, took to X on Thursday to sound the alarm: U.S. national debt has crossed 100% of GDP for the first time since World War II. His proposed solution? A constitutional debt brake.

Hanke shared data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showing that at the end of March, debt held by the public stood at $31.27 trillion, while nominal GDP over the prior 12 months was $31.22 trillion. That puts the debt-to-GDP ratio at 100.2%.

The Numbers Behind the Milestone

The federal government's interest payments on public debt hit $529 billion in the first half of fiscal year 2026, according to the Congressional Budget Office. To put that in perspective, that's nearly as much as the combined spending on defense ($461 billion) and education ($70 billion). The deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year totaled $1.2 trillion, with total outlays of $3.7 trillion.

What the Balance Sheet Shows

The Treasury's latest financial statement paints an even starker picture. As of the end of fiscal 2025, the U.S. government had $6.06 trillion in assets and $47.78 trillion in liabilities — a negative net position of $41.72 trillion. Hanke has previously described the federal government as functionally insolvent. On a household scale, he estimates the government earns $52,446 a year while spending $73,378. Meanwhile, subprime loan delinquency rates have hit 10%, an 11-year high, according to Equifax and Moody's Analytics.

Growth With a Catch

The broader economy is still expanding, but unevenly. U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2% in the first quarter, up from a prior 0.5% pace but below the 2.3% economists had expected. Core PCE — the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge — rose 3.2% year over year in March, driven largely by energy costs tied to the Iran conflict.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon has warned that the country's fiscal trajectory cannot be ignored indefinitely. With debt now exceeding the size of the entire economy, that warning feels more urgent than ever.