Fiscal Transparency
Track government spending, inflation, and your dollar's purchasing power
Where the dollar comes from
Two pipes create what people call money. Congress does not create it. A private bank creates the balance you spend. The Fed creates reserves for banks, and prints bills.
Federal Reserve, Reserve Requirements. Ratio set to zero effective March 26, 2020. federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/reservereq.htm
Bank of England, “Money creation in the modern economy,” Quarterly Bulletin, 2014 Q1. Commercial banks create deposits when they lend.
U.S. Treasury, TreasuryDirect. Bonds are how the Treasury borrows when spending exceeds taxes.
The American Wealth Rollercoaster
Top 1% Income Share over 126 years — drag the timeline or press Play
Sources: Piketty & Saez / World Inequality Database · IRS Statistics of Income
YEAR
1929
TOP 1% INCOME SHARE
22.5%
Great Depression
Stock market crash wiped out fortunes. Unemployment hit 25%. Top 1% share collapsed.
1929 — Black Tuesday
Stock market crash. Dow fell 89% over 3 years.
Tap ⛶ to expand for full interactive view
Fiscal Ledger — 86 Years of Federal Spending
FY 1940–2025 · Click play to watch the fiscal history animate
Receipts
6.7%
Outlays
9.6%
Deficit
-3.0%
Debt held by public
$43.0B
Congress appropriates. This view colors by Congress. Source: OMB Historical Tables.
Debt and the middle class
Stabilize the ratio first. Lower it slowly. Do not aim for zero.
Debt-to-GDP is how large the national debt is compared with the size of the economy. The useful target is this ratio, not paying every Treasury to zero. Treasuries are the plumbing of the financial system.
Keep running large deficits
Debt grows faster than the economy. The ratio keeps rising.
Wages / jobs
Fine at first. Risk later if rates or inflation jump.
Mortgages & car loans
Higher long-term rates make housing and cars more expensive.
Taxes & benefits
Benefits look safe until interest crowds them out.
Inflation
Higher risk that prices eat wages.
Sudden big surplus
Cut spending or raise taxes fast enough to run a large surplus now.
Wages / jobs
Growth and hiring can slow.
Mortgages & car loans
Rates may fall, but incomes can fall too.
Taxes & benefits
Higher taxes or cut services immediately.
Inflation
Prices may cool, sometimes too hard.
Stabilize, then slowly lower
Deficits small enough that debt grows no faster than the economy. Then grind the ratio down in good years.
Wages / jobs
Least disruption.
Mortgages & car loans
Best chance rates stay contained.
Taxes & benefits
Gradual changes, not a shock.
Inflation
Less likely to run away.
What the words mean
Why this hits the middle class
High interest is a quiet tax — mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, and later tax hikes or benefit cuts.
High inflation is a quiet tax — prices rise faster than pay.
Practical order
Stop the ratio from rising.
Aim for primary balance, then small surpluses in expansions.
Work the big drivers: health costs, retirement formulas, and a tax base that matches what Congress spends. Growth does more for the ratio than a one-year gimmick.
Sources: CBO, Treasury, BEA. Educational. Not a vote recommendation.
Where the federal dollar goes.
Share of total federal outlays — not share of GDP — across seven decades.
In 2026, Washington spent $7.20 trillion. 22.0 cents of every federal dollar went to Social Security, 14.0 cents to Medicare, and 9.0 cents to Medicaid. 13.0 cents paid interest on debt already borrowed. 12.0 cents went to national defense — a much smaller share of the budget than during the Cold War, and about 2.9% of the whole economy. The rest was other yearly appropriations and other mandatory programs. Combined, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest were 36.0 cents of the federal dollar. Most of that money is not voted on line by line each year.
Updated Nov 1, 2026 · CBO / OMB / Treasury
What a family pays for health coverage
Household premiums, claim denials, and company results — not the federal budget pie.
Average employer family premium · 2025
$26,993
Worker pays $6,850 (about 25%)
Employer pays $20,143 (about 75%)
Single coverage: $9,325 · KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey.
This is the price of coverage, not a hospital bill and not Medicare.
Who pays the family premium
In 2025, the average employer family plan cost $26,993 a year. Workers paid about 25% of that from their paychecks; employers paid the rest. That household bill is separate from the federal Medicare and Medicaid slices on the chart above. On the public marketplace files, insurers denied about 19% of in-network claims. A denial is not always wrong. Almost no one appeals.
Our Republic: Alliances & Global Trade
Tap a country. Drag the year. See alliances, trade, and sea lanes from official public data.
2020s · Why these alliances exist
What changed
Russia’s war in Ukraine pushed Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024) into NATO. The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia launched AUKUS in 2021 to share nuclear-submarine technology. Russia signed a 2024 security pact with North Korea. CSTO remains Russia’s smaller treaty group. It is not NATO.
Why the alliances exist
The United States still uses written defense treaties to keep partners on the map and sea lanes open for trade. NATO is the mutual-defense core in Europe and North America. AUKUS is a technology pact in the Pacific, not Article 5. India is a major partner, not a NATO ally. Partners help watch chokepoints. The United States offers a security umbrella and the world’s largest consumer market.
What the United States gets
Forward bases and access in treaty countries; partners near Hormuz, Malacca, Suez, Panama, and the Taiwan Strait; export markets for aircraft, chips, energy, food, and weapons; and, where official figures exist, foreign holdings of U.S. debt.
What partners get
For NATO members, a mutual-defense pledge. For Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia, a U.S. security treaty plus access to the U.S. market. For India, partner status and technology cooperation without Article 5. Energy exporters sell oil and gas into a dollar-priced system. That last point stays labeled Analysis.
Goods and sea lanes
Hinge goods: semiconductors, oil and gas, rare earths, medicines, and food. A closure at Hormuz hits oil. A closure at Malacca or the Taiwan Strait hits chips and Asian cargo.
Look on the map
NATO and formal U.S. treaty allies are navy. India is teal. Russia and China stay gray unless Other public pacts is turned on.
Who matters this decade
Drag the year to watch NATO grow after 1991.
Map data updated 11/1/2026. Sources: State, Census/BEA, Treasury, USTR.
Income & Wealth Gap in America
A data-driven look at how economic gains have been distributed — from 1913 to today
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau · Piketty & Saez / World Inequality Database · BLS
Historical Context
Top 1% Income Share
1928: 23.9%
→
2022: 19.0%
Bottom 50% Income Share
1962: 22%
→
2022: 13.2%
Productivity Growth
+205%
since 1948
Median Wage Growth
+21%
since 1948
2023–2026 figures are forward estimates based on IRS Statistics of Income, Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts, and World Inequality Database projections. Official data typically lags 12–24 months.
Money Supply Growth
Tracking M2 Money Supply growth from 2010 to present
Current M2
$23.05T
as of May 2026
Growth Since 2010
+172%
from $8.5T
Peak Growth Rate
+29.2% YoY
September 2020
First Decline
-0.9% YoY
December 2022
M2 measures the total amount of money in the economy (cash, checking deposits, savings, and money market funds). Rapid growth can contribute to inflation and affect purchasing power.
Source: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) — Updated 2026-06
📜 Founders' View: Fiscal Responsibility
Public Debt & Generational Burden
We consider society as a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
Jefferson worried deeply that public debt shifts the cost of today's spending onto unborn generations. Tracking the national debt is, in this view, an act of stewardship — not merely accounting.
Edmund Burke (widely cited by the founders on intergenerational obligation)
AI Fiscal Analysis
Non-partisan, fact-based analysis of current fiscal conditions
Click "Get Live Analysis" to fetch current fiscal data and AI-powered insights.
Uses real-time internet data for accurate, up-to-date analysis.
Purchasing Power Erosion Calculator
Measure how far the dollar has fallen — powered by official BLS CPI-U data
Select a start and end month, then click Calculate.
Powered by official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Economic data sourced from BLS, Federal Reserve, and Treasury Department records.
AI analysis uses live internet data for accuracy. Always verify with official government sources.
