Good morning, and a warm welcome to all our new subscribers. In today’s edition:

• 🇺🇸 New national debt milestone
• 💊 US drug prices on the decline
• 🚨 FBI thwarts NY Capitol bomb plot

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.06-minute read (1,080 words).

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“Whatever you are, be a good one.”

–William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

America’s national debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time this week, marking another milestone in Uncle Sam’s decades-long borrowing spree.

• Treasury Dept. data shows the national debt has risen from $39 trillion in March and $38 trillion last October.
• It’s also more than doubled from a decade ago, when America’s national debt stood at $19.4 trillion.

How did we get here?

The federal government has spent more than it collects in taxes each year since the Clinton administration, with Uncle Sam borrowing to cover the difference by selling Treasury bonds to investors, who expect to be paid back with interest.

Analysts point to several factors that kicked borrowing into a higher gear in recent years:

• The government borrowed heavily under both President Trump and former President Biden to stabilize the economy during Covid and support its recovery.
• Costs for Social Security, Medicare, and defense have continued rising, while tax cuts have reduced government revenue.
• More recently, Trump’s 2025 tax-and-spending law is projected to add trillions to deficits over the next decade, while the Iran war and $160+ billion in tariff refunds have added to this year’s tab.

Here’s the interest-ing part: Investors are currently demanding higher yields to hold longer-term US debt, partly due to concerns over rising deficits. The 30-year Treasury yield topped 5.3% this week, its highest level since 2007.

• That means higher borrowing costs for the US government, as existing debt comes due and new debt is issued at today’s higher rates.
• Interest payments on America’s national debt have reached nearly $1.2 trillion this fiscal year, making them the government’s largest expense outside Social Security and Medicare.

The Treasury Department tried to ease interest-rate pressure Wednesday by announcing plans to buy back more long-term government bonds from investors. Bond yields initially fell, but bounced back on Thursday.

How high is the alarm level?

Fiscal watchdogs say the trend is becoming increasingly dangerous, as interest eats up more of the federal budget following a decade-plus stretch of lower rates that ended post-Covid.

• But the Trump admin argues some policies adding to today’s deficits will generate future economic growth and tax revenue.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has compared the near-term cost of last year’s business tax cuts to “pulling back a slingshot,” arguing they’ll spur investment that pays off down the road.

Looking ahead… The US is fast approaching its $41.1 trillion borrowing limit, after which the Treasury Dept. can’t issue any more new debt. Once that is reached, Congress would need to raise or suspend the limit or the US could eventually fail to pay its bills in full and on time, following temporary “extraordinary measures.”

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, how should the US government deal with its rising national debt and associated interest payments?

• Raise taxes
• Cut spending
• Print more bonds/money
• Some combination of the above
• Nothing needs to be done
• Unsure/other

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Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

1. 💊📉 US prescription drug prices fell 0.8% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago, the steepest annual decline since 1963, per the latest Consumer Price Index.
2. 🎟️ The average ticket price for Billboard's top-100 global tours rose from $83.74 in 2016 to $127.17 per ticket last year (+51%), while attendance across those tours increased by ~100% over the same period, per data from Luminate.
3. 🎓 US college enrollments are currently projected to fall 13% over the next 15 years, after the largest number of Americans born in a single year arrived on campus in Fall 2025.
4. 🤖 The share of ChatGPT citations that come from Reddit has fallen by 85%+ since August 7, dropping from an average of 3.8% of ChatGPT Search citations to just 0.5%.
5. 🚗 The first Ferrari Luce EV ever made—representing the first electric vehicle in Ferrari’s storied 97-year history—sold for $40 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Monterey, CA, fetching ~36x more than its projected price.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📉 US stocks close down across the board, as Treasury yields continue to climb higher despite the Treasury Dept’s debt buyback operation (S&P: -0.9% | Dow: -1.3% | Nasdaq: -1.0%)
• 🏙️ Founder of China Evergrande Group, the world's most-indebted property developer, sentenced to life in prison by Chinese ‌court; Hui Ka Yan, once Asia's richest man, was sentenced five years after Evergrande’s collapse shook China’s economy.
• 🏥 Employer health insurance costs are projected to rise 9.5% next year, on the backs of double-digit increases in each of the past three years, per new Aon projections.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎥 The Odyssey becomes the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time at the global box office ($1.352 billion), surpassing 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
• 🎾 US Open raises total player compensation by 20%, with singles champions to earn a Grand Slam-record $5.5 million.
• 📰 Australia approves new law placing a 2.5% levy on local advertising revenue of major tech companies if they fail to establish commercial content partnerships with domestic news publishers.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀 NASA calls off mission to save its Swift Observatory from a fiery reentry into Earth’s orbit later this year, after running into issues with the rescue spacecraft from Arizona startup Katalyst Space Technologies.
• 🦠 Scientists directly date evidence of life 3.5 billion years ago for the first time, though scientists have reported other possible traces of life hundreds of millions of years older.
• 💀 WashU biologists identify new immune organ hiding inside humans’ skulls, per new study published in Nature.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 🪖 US Army is phasing out a unit recently established in Europe to master drone and ground robot warfare; it comes under orders from Gen. Christopher LaNeve, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pick to lead the Army.
• 🏛️ Federal agents seize electronic devices from former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and search his Washington home as part of investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
• 🚨 FBI thwarts alleged ISIS-inspired terrorist plot where one woman aimed to bomb the New York Capitol building in Albany.

☝️ Three red panda cubs—including a pair of twins—were born at the Conservation Biology Institute facility in Virginia earlier this summer, marking a conservation milestone for the globally endangered species.

🤔 Did you know? Spiders have pale blue “blood” instead of red. Their circulatory fluid, called hemolymph, uses a copper-based protein to carry oxygen, rather than the iron-based hemoglobin found in human blood.

📰 Worth a read: The ‘country hicks’ who refused $26 million from an AI data center.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• 5 medieval jobs that never really disappeared
• A Bad Bunny and a beagle walk into a restaurant
• To declutter, or not to declutter?

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How well did you pay attention this week? Find out here.

1. A recipe calls for 3 cups of flour to make 24 cookies. How many cups of flour are needed to make 40 cookies?
2. A $250 television is discounted by 20%. Sales tax of 8% is then added to the discounted price. What is the final cost?
3. A cyclist rides 18 miles at 12 miles per hour, then another 15 miles at 10 miles per hour. How long does the entire ride take?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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The pup spent 72 days lost in the mountains near Lake Tahoe before turning up at a shelter extremely thin but otherwise unharmed.

1. 5 cups
2. $216
3. 3 hours

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