Dear Reader,

The Treasury just quietly released the final numbers for fiscal year 2026.

Interest payments on the national debt: $1.1 trillion.

Not $1.1 trillion in roads. Not in bridges. Not in hospitals. Pure interest. Money paid to bondholders for the privilege of borrowing more money the government does not have.

For the first time in American history, the interest bill on the national debt is bigger than the entire defense budget. Only Social Security and Medicare beat it.

Inside today's issue:

• $1.1 Trillion and Rising: The debt spiral is now self-sustaining. FY2026 deficit: $2 trillion. National debt: $40.37 trillion. Adding $5 billion every single day.
• The American Credit Card: While Washington borrows at scale, your neighbors are drowning in $1.26 trillion in personal credit card debt at 22% interest. The strategy is identical. The scale is different.
• The Escape Hatch: Every empire reaches this exact moment. Here is what history says happens next, and what still holds its value when the music stops.
• Robert Kiyosaki — Perpetual Income Plan: Screens thousands of companies down to the ones that pay you to own them.

THE BILL NOBODY CAN PAY

Here are the numbers from the U.S. Treasury's final Monthly Statement for fiscal year 2026:

Deficit: $2.0 trillion. Up 12% from last year. Up $217 billion above what the Congressional Budget Office projected.

Interest on the debt: $1.1 trillion. Up $81 billion from 2025. Now the third-largest federal expense. Bigger than the entire defense budget. Bigger than Medicaid. Only Social Security and Medicare are larger.

National debt: $40.37 trillion. Adding $5 billion every day. Debt per citizen: $120,499.

They called fiscal year 2026 a success.

THE FLIP

Here is what Bloomberg is measuring: GDP is growing. Unemployment is low. The Fed is "managing inflation."

Here is what Bloomberg is not measuring: the government now sends more money to bondholders every year than it spends protecting the country. The Pentagon's entire budget for 2026 was $886 billion. The interest bill beat it.

"Interest payments on the national debt increased by $81 billion (8 percent), from $971 billion to $1.1 trillion... Interest spending was the third-largest federal government expenditure, exceeded only by Social Security and Medicare."

This is not new math. It is the final chapter of a very old story.

Rome did not fall because the barbarians were stronger. It fell because it could not pay its armies. The empire kept diluting the currency to service old promises. Eventually, everyone stopped pretending the coin was worth something.

I have been saying this for 30 years. The only question was when.

WHAT YOUR NEIGHBORS ARE DOING

While Washington runs this playbook at $40 trillion scale, the American consumer is running the same play at the kitchen table.

Credit card debt: $1.26 trillion. All-time record.

Average interest rate on cards that carry a balance: 22.36%.

90-day delinquencies: 12.8%. Up from 7.6% in 2022.

People are borrowing at 22% to buy groceries. Not luxuries. Food, rent, utilities. And the delinquency rate is accelerating.

The government says the economy is resilient. What they mean is: people are using credit to prop up spending numbers. That can only last so long before the card gets maxed. Then the payment stops. Then 12.8% delinquency becomes something that makes 2008 look calm.

Here is the number that stops me cold: $3.2 billion. That is what the federal government spends in interest every single day. Not to build anything. Not to protect anyone. Just to service old debt on old spending.

And yet they keep borrowing more. Before I show you exactly what this means for the one asset class that has survived every empire collapse in recorded history...

SPONSORED: STANSBERRY RESEARCH

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THE ESCAPE HATCH

...here is exactly why the timing right now is critical.

When the interest bill exceeds the defense budget, governments face three choices: cut spending, raise taxes, or print money.

Cutting spending is politically impossible. Raising taxes into a slowing economy is political suicide. That leaves printing.

They will print. They always print. History has never recorded a single government that chose the third option and said, "No, we will accept the pain."

Gold knows it. Silver knows it. Bitcoin knows it. That is why hard assets have been climbing while the official story is "inflation is under control."

My poor dad believed in savings accounts and Treasury bonds. He worked 40 years and watched inflation eat everything he saved.

My rich dad said one thing: when paper promises cost more to maintain than your whole military, stop holding paper promises.

$1.1 trillion in interest. $40.37 trillion in debt. $120,499 per citizen. And they are adding $5 billion more every day.

You do not need my permission to act on this. You just need to look at the numbers.

To your freedom,
Robert Kiyosaki
Author, Rich Dad Poor Dad

P.S. 23 Payments. Zero Cuts. Through a War. Six months of war, $100 oil, and a Fed hike. The Perpetual Income Plan collected 23 payments. Not one was cut. Four were raised. Robert Kiyosaki explains in a short video. Watch it here.