Long Default

Explore U.S. federal debt and fiscal history with Long Default, a native iPhone reference built around official public sources.

See the latest dated Treasury total debt at the top of Record, alongside a clearly labeled clock that estimates debt change while you view it. The estimate uses changes between observed annual debt stocks; it is separate from Treasury’s published balance.

Browse annual records, a newest-first Timeline with selected historical images, presidential administrations, and federal spending categories. Compare fiscal years, open metric explanations, save questions locally, and share source-linked cards.

Historical fiscal records are bundled for offline use. Official refreshes read Treasury, Office of Management and Budget, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Department of Defense publications directly. Daily observations, actual annual records, reconstructed history, official estimates and unavailable values keep their own dates and labels.

Search years, administrations, events and sources. Optional in-app feedback lets you send a typed message and an optional reply email. Fiscal browsing requires no account.

Long Default is an independent educational project and is not affiliated with the U.S. government. Historical image sources, dates and rights appear in the app’s Image credits.

Photo credit: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944 campaign portrait, by Leon Perskie. Courtesy of the FDR Presidential Library & Museum; gift of Beatrice Perskie Foxman and Dr. Stanley B. Foxman, 2009. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdrlibrary/8145288140/ . Licensed under CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ . Retouched and cropped version via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=171293476 . Displayed as a reduced thumbnail.

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