U.S. consumer debt as well as U.S. government debt is making headline news today, as stocks were down for the second day in a row. According to April 2026 data released by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, U.S. margin debt surged another $83 billion in a single month to a record $1.304 trillion. Over the last 12 months alone, margin debt has risen by roughly $453 billion, or 53%. As Yahoo Finance reports, "Those aren't normal numbers." They go on to report that even more concerning is that the margin debt now equals about 5.2% of U.S. GDP, according to data compiled by Sakkonet Research using FINRA and federal economic data and that level sits roughly 3 percentage points above pre-2008 financial crisis levels and above the peak reached during the Dot-Com Bubble.