Another "debt doesn't really matter" article by canttakesky

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Another "debt doesn't really matter" article

POSTED BY: CANTTAKESKY
UPDATED: Sunday, December 9, 2012 04:36
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Sunday, December 9, 2012 4:36 AM

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/january/why-growth-matters-more-t
han-debt

By Steve Conover Sunday, January 29, 2012

The proper question is not how will America pay foreign creditors back but rather what will maintain China and Japan’s desire to buy low-interest Treasury securities from us?

The U.S. federal debt recently eclipsed $15 trillion, and is still climbing. That has generated headlines and raised a lot of questions. How should we behave towards China, supposedly our biggest creditor? Has the debt burden become unsustainable? How will our kids and grandkids ever pay off the debt we’ve been accumulating? The answers contain some surprises.

A total federal debt of $15 trillion means debt owners currently hold assets totaling $15 trillion in Treasury bonds, bills, and notes. Let’s examine who owns those assets.

Who owns the debt?

A pie chart is a convenient way of showing how those assets break down by owner. At the time of this writing, the latest official numbers are for December 2011. (The official numbers are updated monthly: The Treasury summarizes our debt position; the Fed estimates the magnitude of foreign holdings by country and reports its own holdings of Treasury securities.)