Debt is crushing the American economy.

Over the last month or so, the mainstream seems to have realized that the economy isn’t on nearly as solid ground as government officials and central planners were telling them throughout 2015, and all of a sudden, gold is in vogue. But as we pointed out last week, the signs of economic distress have been there all along.

One underlying fundamental that seems to get swept under the carpet is the staggering level of debt – both public and private.

Last week, the US national debt crossed the $19 trillion threshold. Most of us can’t evengrasp that number. The graphic above created by the Heritage Foundation puts it into vivid perspective, illustrating what this level of indebtedness and spending would mean to the average American household.

It’s easy to see just how much trouble a family is in when it’s $311,000 in debt and still putting $9,000 more a year on credit cards. Yet, when it comes to the federal government, everybody acts like it’s no big deal.

It really is.

Just consider the US budget ramifications pointed out by Yonathan Amselem in a column on the Mises Institute website:

Low interest rates stemming from a growing money supply are the only reason the US government has managed to service its gargantuan debt in recent years. The Congressional Budget Office itself has pointed out that even a slight rise in interest rates could potentially result in anywhere from $700 to $900 billion in annual tax payments just to service the interest on our debt. At this pace, paying the republic’s creditors will become our largest government program in no time. Future Americans might go to work and have 50% of their paychecks seized not to pay for government services, but simply to service debt forced on them by central planners.”

This is just one of many reasons the Federal Reserve cannot embark on a sustained program of interest rate hikes.