Pope Leo XIV has used as an image in recent addresses, that nations seeking power and domination over other nations are exhibiting the behavior of those people in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, who sought to build the Tower of Babel to imitate the power of God, and were instead confounded by God through natural law.
Consider that the United States, especially by seeking to pour unheard-of sums of money into a “War Department,” added $3 billion in annual interest payments—not new debt, new interest payments out of the Federal budget—in just the past week. And that was despite a Herculean attempt by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to use massive issuance of the very shortest-term debt to avoid such increased interest payments, since Treasury securities of just a few weeks’ maturity are not much affected by inflation. The [column called “Wolf Street”] https://wolfstreet.com/2026/06/13/us-government-sold-646-billion-of-treasury-securities-this-week-2nd-wave-of-inflation-of-approaches-10-year-treasury-yield/), shows this in great detail.
The net new debt issued June 9-11 was $59 billion, consisting in long-term Treasury securities—3-year and 10-year Notes, and 30-year Bonds. If that rate persisted all year, the Treasury would add roughly $3 trillion in net new debt in 2026, to the current $39 trillion-plus pile. The interest on that net new debt, at 4.5-5% and rising, would add, in just that one week, $3 billion to annual interest payments—they are already going out at over $1 trillion/year.
All the other debt issued that week on June 9-11, some $527 billion, was outstanding debt rolled over because it could not be paid, and it was issued in the shortest-term securities possible, Treasury Bills maturing in 4 weeks to 52 weeks (one year).
