What with a 250th birthday, Taylor Swift's wedding and the football World Cup, Americans could be forgiven for taking their eye off the ball this summer.
But signs of economic trouble have been building. This week they hit the headlines when US national debt passed the $40tn mark, raising concerns both at home and abroad.
It took almost 200 years for America's national debt reach $1tn for the first time, says Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
That milestone back in 1981 was treated as a wake-up call. "At that time, President [Ronald] Reagan told the nation in a televised address, 'If we as a nation needed a warning, let that be it'," she said.
"Jumping to America's 250th year, we are spending more than that just on interest payments on our debt."
Hitting the $40tn milestone was expected – driven by public spending surges under both the Donald Trump and Joe Biden administrations – but it marks another line in the sand.
Ballooning costs for social programs and other spending have outstripped revenues undermined by tax cuts. Responses to crises such as the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic have led to increased borrowing.
Add to that higher interest rates in response to recent inflation shocks and the picture begins to look grim.
At the beginning of Trump's first presidential term in 2016, US national debt stood at just under $20tn. It has doubled in the decade since.
According to the Congress Joint Economic Committee, the figure is rising by about $90,000 every second, or $7.8bn a day.
"What's very different now compared to a decade ago is the level of interest rates," says Eric Swanson, professor of economics at University of California and former senior economist at the Federal Reserve.
"Long-term interest rates in the US are at multi-decade highs – part of that is concerns about inflation, but part of that is concerns about the extreme levels of US government borrowing."
The bond market is demanding higher returns with investors wary of the scale of the US's debt, but also because tech firms borrowing eye-watering sums to spend on AI are competing with the government for investors' cash.
"What happens when interest rates go up is that the funding of the deficit becomes more expensive," says economist Mohamed A. El-Erian, a professor at the Wharton School.
Interest payments on government debt are now 15% higher than the same period last year, says El-Erian. They are almost 20% of tax revenue "larger than defence", he adds.