Disclaimer

Text on this page was drafted with AI tools; every figure is computed by code from the cited official source.

Information, not advice

500metrics is a general publication for everyone. It publishes facts about US government finance: amounts, dates, counts and calculations made with formulas we publish. Everything on the site is the same for every reader, is published openly on a regular schedule as the government releases its data, and is published as is. A page may say that a figure is the highest or lowest over a stated window; it never says whether a figure is good or bad or what it means for anyone.

Nothing on 500metrics is investment, financial, tax or legal advice, and nothing on it is an offer of, or a suggestion to trade, any security. We do not know your circumstances and we never take them into account. We do not say whether any security is cheap or dear, and we do not forecast prices, yields or government decisions. If you need advice about your own money, ask a qualified adviser who knows your situation.

We do not answer questions about what a reader should do with their money, by email or in any other way. We gladly answer questions about the data and how it is made at hello@500metrics.com .

How far the numbers can be relied on

• Our numbers come from official sources. Each page names its source, links to it, and shows three dates: when the event happened, when the source published it, and when we last checked it.
• Sources revise their data. Government agencies sometimes revise figures after first publishing them. When a source revises a figure, our page changes too and says so with a date.
• Sources can be late, and so can we. When a source misses its usual release time, the page keeps its previous reading, keeps its old date and says the reading is late. A page never shows a date newer than its data.
• We can make mistakes. Our code checks each reading against the government's own published totals before it goes live, but no check catches everything. When we find an error, or someone reports one, we correct it and log the correction at Corrections.
• Comparisons cover a stated window. When a page says a figure is the highest or lowest "since" a date, that statement covers only the source's own series over the window named. Earlier periods may contain larger or smaller values that the series does not include.
• Scenarios are not predictions. Some pages show what a figure would be under stated assumptions (for example, if interest rates were one percentage point higher). They are labelled as scenarios, list their assumptions, and say nothing about what will happen.
• Estimates by others are theirs. Where we show another organisation's estimate, such as the date the Treasury could run out of room under the debt limit, it sits in its own box with its author and date. 500metrics does not publish an estimate of that date.

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