U.S. Debt Counter

README.md

US DEBT TICKER

Terminal dashboard debt counter optimized for Termux in landscape mode. Syncs with U.S. Treasury API (2026-03-18 snapshot) and projects growth at $87,531/sec.

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1. Quick Install

Run this one-liner to grab dependencies and the script from this gist in one step:

pkg update && pkg install curl figlet jq bc ncurses-utils -y && \
curl -sL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/deadflowers/d27f917a721628a16a90fb0b04d5a821/raw/usdebt.sh -o usdebt.sh && \
chmod +x usdebt.sh

2. Usage

./usdebt.sh

by Ray Kooyenga

usdebt.sh

#!/bin/bash
export LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8

# Snapshot for 2026-03-18
BASE_DEBT=39004964392193
DEBT_PER_SEC=87531
API_URL="https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/v2/accounting/od/debt_to_penny?sort=-record_date&limit=1"

# Sync with Treasury
DATA=$(curl -s --connect-timeout 2 "$API_URL")
if [[ $? -eq 0 && -n "$DATA" ]]; then
    BASE_DEBT=$(echo "$DATA" | jq -r '.data[0].tot_pub_debt_out_amt')
    REC_DATE=$(echo "$DATA" | jq -r '.data[0].record_date')
else
    REC_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
fi

# Set baseline to the start of the current day for real-time tracking
START_TS=$(date -d "$REC_DATE" +%s)

tput civis
trap "tput cnorm; clear; exit" SIGINT

# Blue header
printf "\e[H\e[J\e[1;34m"
figlet -f slant "US DEBT"

# White byline
CUR_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
printf "\e[1;37m%s | \$%s/sec | src: trsry.gov\e[0m\n" "$CUR_DATE"
printf "\e[1;34m━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\e[0m\n\n"

# Anchor for ticker
tput sc

while :; do
    NOW=$(date +%s%N)
    DIFF_NS=$((NOW - (START_TS * 1000000000)))
    
    # Calculate real-time drift
    ADDED=$(echo "scale=9; ($DIFF_NS / 1000000000) * $DEBT_PER_SEC" | bc -l)
    TOTAL=$(echo "$BASE_DEBT + $ADDED" | bc -l | cut -d'.' -f1)
    
    printf -v VAL "%'d" "$TOTAL"

    # Red Counter
    tput rc
    printf "  \e[1;31m\$%s\e[0m" "$VAL"
    
    sleep 0.03
done