US debt tops $40T as Treasury doubles bond buybacks to calm markets

Can somebody explain what this means exactly?

Why do they need to pay it back? If they pay it back, then what will happen?

I'm from a developing country. My country is objectively much worse than US in every aspect. My country doesn't export anything significant. There's no innovation. insane level of corruption. Yet we don't have this issue. Nobody screams that the country will collapse.

Is this kind of doomsday thing an American culture?

Fed is paring back on open market operations while treasury is moving forward. The treasury buybacks are a pittance, though. This administration seems to be sleep walking into a debt crisis. I guess they think they can hold out long enough to blame it on the other party?

The uncomfortable reality is that fixing this will require tax hikes AND spending cuts. Not just taxes on people you don't like and spending cuts on niche programs, real changes like a VAT and slashing the VA.

Can someone smart tell me how to profit from this if I believe this (plus everything else) is going to spiral into huge crisis?

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49366743

It really seems the US is done.