# What Alexander Hamilton Would Think of Today’s National Debt.

1 Opinion September 10, 2025 ![Richard Sylla](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/2023-10/rsylla.jpg?itok=priIX-Y0)By Richard Sylla

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As the first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton helped establish the credit of the U.S. government, making it a trusted borrower at home and abroad.

What we’ve done with that trust might appall him.

Over two centuries, the money we borrowed funded many of the biggest developments in our nation’s history. But we stopped paying it back and kept borrowing more, with no workable plan in place for repaying it. Our federal debt now stands at $37 trillion, with no end in sight.

Read the full [*The Wall Street Journal* article](https://www.wsj.com/economy/alexander-hamilton-national-debt-155e2634?mod=hp_listc_pos1).
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*Richard Sylla is Professor Emeritus of Economics at NYU Stern.*

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