US debt is now $37tn – should we be worried?

President Trump's budget bill will add to the US debt pile but is there a limit to how much the rest of the world will lend Uncle Sam?

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Trump's tax-cutting budget bill is expected to add at least $3 trillion (£2.2 trillion) to the US's already eye-watering $37tn (£27tn) debt pile. There is no shortage of critics of the plan, not least Trump's former ally Elon Musk, who has called it a "disgusting abomination".

The growing debt pile leaves some to wonder whether there is a limit to how much the rest of the world will lend Uncle Sam.

Those doubts have been showing up recently in the weaker value of the dollar and the higher interest rate investors are demanding to lend money to America.

It needs to borrow this money to make up the difference between what it earns and what it spends every year.