US national debt

Between 2005 and 2022, the US national debt and the dog treat market both grew with the kind of determination that suggests neither Congress nor golden retrievers have any intention of slowing down. The correlation of 0.9655 across eighteen years implies that the nation is borrowing to fund its dogs' snacking habits, which, given the $9 billion dog treat market and the $31 trillion national debt, would require each treat to carry a federal subsidy of roughly $3,400. This is not the case, but the mental image of a congressional hearing on bison jerky appropriations has a certain appeal.

The US national debt grew from roughly $8 trillion in 2005 to over $31 trillion by 2022, driven by tax cuts, stimulus spending, entitlement growth, and pandemic-era fiscal responses. Dog treat market revenue grew from roughly $3 billion to over $9 billion, driven by pet humanization and premium product trends. Both are long-run upward trends across 18 years, one fiscal and one consumer, driven by entirely different institutional and market forces that share only a direction and a timeline.

Any metric that only increases over eighteen years will correlate with any other metric that only increases over eighteen years. The national debt correlates with nearly everything; the dog treat is just the most endearing example.