MONEY DAILY SPECIAL: U.S. DEBT TO HIT $37 TILLION TONIGHT AROUND 9:00 PM EDT (during NBA Finals Game 6)

UPDATE: 9:07 pm EDT the U.S. hit $37 trillion in debt. Good luck, and good night.

MONEY DAILY has been trying to predict when the U.S. debt would exceed $37 trillion, and, despite being dead wrong about it hitting the mark around the same time as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference Wednesday, perhaps it's fitting that the number will be hit on Juneteenth, the most racist national holiday ever concocted - commemorating the abolition of slavery, presumably in Galveston, Texas, on the 19th of June, 1865, nearly 2 1/2 years after the fact.

Oddly enough, back in the 1860s, there was no internet or high-speed communications, and Texans being Texans, they didn't bother to tell their indentured servants about President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

According to Wikipedia:

Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the Civil War on September 22, 1862, declaring that if the rebels did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union, all enslaved people in the Confederacy would be freed on the first day of the year. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all enslaved people in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were freed.

Anyhow, there's some irony that the 19th of June is known in certain circles as "America's Second Independence Day," and that the U.S. government debt will exceed $37 trillion, keeping every American taxpayer in perpetual debt slavery.

The U.S. Debt Clock notes that the debt per citizen is close to $108,000, so, anybody born today will immediately be $108,000 in debt. No wonder President Trump wants the Fed to lower rates. By the time people born this year reach the ripe earning age of 21, the interest alone ought to be enough to keep them under the government's thumb for the rest of their lives.

Besides "37" being a prime number, indivisible by any previous whole digit, another irony is that the vault past $37 trillion will occur around halftime of the NBA Finals. Not to sound racist, but there is some hubris in the fact that it was mainly black people that were freed on Juneteeth, and this particular anniversary will be marked by athletes - many of them of color - making millions of dollars to play basketball. The worst of it is that these multi-millionaire athletes are taxed out the proverbial wazoo, even though the government collecting the loot hasn't been able to balance a budget in 25 years.

So, OK. keep your eyes on the debt clock and the shot clock and do a few shots of your favorite adult beverage, comfortable in the knowledge that Juneteeth may be a fun - and well-deserved - day off, but, the federal government has now set the price of freedom at $37 trillion.. and counting.