Where Does The Money Go? So Where in the World Is the Debt?
So Where in the World Is the Debt?
A web extra from Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson, authors of
"Where Does The Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis"
"Where Does The Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis"
At the close of 2009, the debt owed by the United States was about $12 trillion, and a little over $3.5 trillion of that amount was owed to foreign banks and other international investors. This is a nice vote of confidence in the U.S. economy in some respects. People around the world think their money will be safe invested in U.S. Treasury bonds. In fact, during the world financial crisis of 2008–09, you couldn’t keep investors away from Treasuries, because they seemed like the only safe place to park your money. Still, there’s a risk that at some point, international investors might decide to put some of their money elsewhere, and that could drive up interest rates and cause turmoil in the stock and currency markets—not such a pretty picture.
| The Top Ten Foreign Holders of U.s. Debt in November 2009: | |
| Country | Amount |
| China, Mainland | $789.6 billion |
| Japan | $757.3 billion |
| United Kingdom | $277.5 billion |
| Oil Exporters (including Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria) | $187.7 billion |
| Caribbean Banking Centers (includes the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, and British Virgin Islands) | $179.8 billion |
| Brazil | $157.1 billion |
| Hong Kong | $146.2 billion |
| Russia | $128.1 billion |
| Luxembourg | $91.7 billion |
| Taiwan | $78.4 billion |
Source: Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board as reported in CRS report The Federal Government Debt: Its Size and Economic Signifcance, Feb. 3, 2010. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL31590_20100203.pdf.
