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Who does the U.S. owe anyway?

When we talk about who the United States owes, who are we talking about exactly? Here's the list of the 15 holders of U.S. debt.

  • 15. Luxembourg - $87.2 billion
  • 14. Depository Institutions - $107 billion (US banks, savings and loans, etc)
  • 13. Russia - $119 billion (up from $35 billion in January 2008)
  • 12. United Kingdom - $124 billion
  • 11. Insurance companies - $126.4 billion
  • 10. Brazil - $133 billion
  • 9. Caribbean Banking Centers (Cayman Islands, etc) - $176.6 billion
  • 8. Oil Exporters - $186 billion (Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria)
  • 7. Other Investors - $413 billion (bank personal trusts and estates, corporate and non-corporate businesses, etc)
  • 6. Pension Funds - $456.4 billion
  • 5. State and local governments - $517 billion (at the low end)
  • 4. Japan - $634.8 billion
  • 3. China - $739.6 billion ($811.3 billion if you count what we owe Chinese owned Hong Kong)
  • 2. Mutual Funds - $769.1 billion
  • 1. Federal Reserve and the Intragovernmental agencies - $4.806 trillion.
You read correctly, the biggest holder of U.S. debt is the U.S. government itself. Only a decade ago this figure was only $2 billion.

Julian Cook/March 25
Source:Source: US Treasury, US Federal Reserve & US Office of Debt Management

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