In late December, after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen borrowed $90 billion in just one day, the federal government’s public debt eclipsed $34 trillion for the first time in history.The steady accumulation of public debt has become a mainstay in modern America, seemingly as inevitable as death and taxes. But something strange happened when the US passed yet another trillion-dollar debt milestone. There appeared to be concern. “The federal debt starts the new year at a level that is hard to grasp: $34 trillion,” the New York Times declared in a piece titled “The Debt Matters Again,” and even “…federal...