External Debt: What is the composition of America’s external debt and to whom is it owed?

June 8th, 2008 | by admin |

  1. 2 Responses to “External Debt: What is the composition of America’s external debt and to whom is it owed?”

  2. By Homer J. Simpson on Jun 11, 2008 | Reply

    The public debt (just treasury securities) is about $9 trillion. of this, only $4 trillion is held by non-US governmental entities. of the $4 trillion, about $2 trillion is held by foreign governments and foreign individuals.

    This figure does not include a number of unfunded commitments such as social security.

  3. By KevinStud99 on Jun 14, 2008 | Reply

    Good answer from Homer.

    Will just add that the federal debt should not include unfunded commitments, since mere commitments are not debt. And to further confuse things I’ll point out that the 4.0 trillion of debt that the federal government itself owns is actually not debt at all, but in fact IS unfunded commitments. But that’s for the advanced class.

    P.S. China owns 400 billion, that is correct. See link below for the full list.

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