Who holds U.S. debt?
Posted on: April 6, 2009
This CNBC slideshow is facinating. Here’s who holds U.S. debt.
15. Luxembourg – $87.2 billion
14. Depository Institutions – $107.3 billion (includes commercial banks, savings banks, and credit unions.
13. Russia – $119.6 billion
12. UK – $124.2 billion
11. Insurance Companies – $126.4 billion (includes property-casualty and life insurance firms)
10. Brazil – $133.5 billion
9. Caribbean Banking Centers – $176.6 billion
8. Oil Exporters – $186.3 billion (includes Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria)
7. Other Investors – $413.2 billion (includes individuals, government-sponsored enterprises, brokers and dealers, bank personal trusts, estates, corporate and non-corporate businesses)
6. Pension Funds – $456.4 billion (includes both private and local government pension funds)
5. State and Local Governments – $522.7 billion
4. Japan – $634.8 billion
3. China (mainland) – $739.6 billion [Hong Kong – not included – holds another $71.7 billion]
2. Mutual Funds – $769.1 billion (includes money market funds, mutual funds and closed-end funds)
1. Federal Reserve and Intragovernmental Holdings – $4.806 trillion
I’m not sure where the other trillion and a half or so went.
Cognitive Coup 
1 | euandus2
November 23, 2009 at 9:58 am
There is a NYT article on the US debt today (see post at http://euandus3.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/12-trillion-in-debt-living-beyond-our-means/). It hasn’t been just after the financial crisis of 2008 that the US Government has had unbalanced annual budgets… And consider consumer “use” of credit cards? Is there something about our society–about ourselves–that we are missing because we are in it? (e.g. a fish doesn’t “see” its water). I don’t think we are digging deep enough.