“This is a crisis,” visionary billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk declared Wednesday, reacting to news that the U.S. public debt had increased by nearly a half-trillion dollars in just three weeks.

Musk issued the warning on his X.com social media platform in response to a post by The Kobeissi Letter explaining the severity and danger of the rapid growth of the already-daunting national debt.

In its Tuesday post, Kobeissi notes that, “over the last three weeks alone,” the total national debt:

“This is unsustainable. America is in the fast lane to bankruptcy,” Kobessi concludes in its post.

Indeed, as Kobeissi reports, the nation’s federal debt recorded an alarming increase during a mere three-week period, according to U.S. Treasury statistics. From September 27 to October 21, total U.S. debt rose by nearly a half-trillion dollars, jumping from $35.3 trillion to $35.8 trillion.

The $473 billion three-week increase represents a fifth of the total Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 growth of $2.3 trillion.

That 1.3% increase in three weeks, if sustained for an entire year, would more than double the 6.9% increase in debt recorded in FY2024, which ended on September 30.

In FY2024, the national debt represented 124% of the county’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

What’s more, the interest paid by the U.S. to finance its ever-growing debt is a significant factor exacerbating the nation’s budgetary problem.

In FY2024 – for the first time ever – the U.S. paid more than a trillion dollars ($1.16 trillion) in annual interest on its debt. That comes out to an average of $3,360 per American, according to Kobeissi.