Federal Debt, Fed Balance Sheet & Money Supply
Latest data: September 16, 2026 · Updated automatically from official sources
Three numbers capture the scale of U.S. fiscal and monetary policy: the federal government’s total public debt, the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, and the M2 money supply. The Fed’s balance sheet ballooned during quantitative easing and has been shrinking under quantitative tightening since 2022 — tracking it alongside M2 shows how much of the post-2020 liquidity surge has been unwound.
Latest readings
- Total Public Debt was $39.07T as of Q1 2026, up 1.4% from the prior reading and up 7.9% from a year earlier — the highest reading since records in this series began in 1966.
- Fed Balance Sheet was $6.75T as of Sep 16, 2026, up 0.1% from the prior reading and up 2.1% from a year earlier.
- M2 Money Supply was $23.22T as of July 2026, up 0.4% from the prior reading and up 5.4% from a year earlier — the highest reading since records in this series began in 1959.
- M2 Growth was up 5.4% year over year in July 2026, compared with 5.3% in the prior period and 4.4% a year earlier — the highest since June 2022.
Total federal public debt
Federal Reserve balance sheet
M2 money supply growth
Recent readings
| Period | M2 growth (YoY) | Change |
|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | 5.4% | +0.07 pp |
| June 2026 | 5.3% | -0.05 pp |
| May 2026 | 5.4% | +0.86 pp |
| April 2026 | 4.5% | +0.12 pp |
| March 2026 | 4.4% | -0.18 pp |
| February 2026 | 4.6% | +0.53 pp |
| January 2026 | 4.1% | +0.02 pp |
| December 2025 | 4.0% | +0.19 pp |
| November 2025 | 3.9% | -0.43 pp |
| October 2025 | 4.3% | +0.05 pp |
| September 2025 | 4.2% | -0.02 pp |
| August 2025 | 4.3% | -0.14 pp |
| July 2025 | 4.4% | — |
Key statistics
| Indicator | Latest | Year ago | 5-yr avg | Long-run avg | Record high | Record low | Data since |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Public Debt | $39.07T | $36.21T | $33.23T | $8.82T | $39.07T (Jan 2026) | $316.1B (Apr 1966) | 1966 |
| Fed Balance Sheet | $6.75T | $6.61T | $7.65T | $4.00T | $8.97T (Apr 2022) | $712.8B (Jan 2003) | 2002 |
| M2 Money Supply | $23.22T | $22.03T | $21.53T | $5.83T | $23.22T (Jul 2026) | $286.6B (Jan 1959) | 1959 |
| M2 Growth (YoY) | 5.4% | 4.4% | 3.2% | 6.8% | 26.8% (Feb 2021) | -4.6% (Apr 2023) | 1960 |
Federal debt
Total public debt is everything the U.S. Treasury owes: debt held by the public (Treasury bills, notes and bonds owned by investors, foreign governments and the Federal Reserve) plus intragovernmental holdings, such as the Social Security trust funds. Debt grows when the government runs budget deficits. Economists usually judge its burden relative to the size of the economy (debt-to-GDP) and by the interest cost of servicing it, which rises as maturing debt is refinanced at higher rates.
The Fed’s balance sheet
The Federal Reserve’s assets are mostly Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities. During the 2008 crisis and again in 2020, the Fed bought trillions of dollars of these bonds — quantitative easing (QE) — to push down long-term interest rates. Under quantitative tightening (QT) it lets bonds mature without replacing them, shrinking the balance sheet. The data come from the weekly H.4.1 release, published every Thursday.
M2 money supply
M2 is a broad measure of money held by the public: currency, checking and savings deposits, small time deposits and retail money-market funds. M2 grew more than 25% year over year in early 2021 — the fastest pace since the series began in 1959 — and then shrank outright in 2023, its first year-over-year decline on record. The link between money growth and inflation is looser than textbook models suggest, but large swings in M2 still tend to show up in spending and asset prices.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the U.S. national debt?
The latest total public debt outstanding is shown at the top of this page, from Treasury data. The Treasury also publishes a daily figure on its “Debt to the Penny” website.
What is quantitative tightening?
Quantitative tightening is the Federal Reserve shrinking its balance sheet by allowing bonds it owns to mature without reinvesting the proceeds, which removes reserves from the banking system and puts upward pressure on long-term rates.
Related data
Data are retrieved automatically from the original statistical agencies (via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database) and may be revised by the source. Year-over-year changes are calculated by econHQ. See About & methodology for details.