dmallind
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:01 AM
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Guess the econ stat - No cheating! |
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No looking it up now folks.
The total US debt is give or take $12.3T
How much of that is held by China?
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Nay
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:02 AM
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Jeff In Milwaukee
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:03 AM
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When you owe the bank $100,000 the bank owns you. When you owe the bank $100,000,000,000 you own the bank.
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tmyers09
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:03 AM
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3. I'm gonna guess about 5. |
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The rest is from boneheaded spending on war.
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Robb
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:04 AM
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Edited on Fri Jan-15-10 09:06 AM by Robb
Edited to add: Wow, I looked it up. Excellent OP.
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notesdev
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:15 AM
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On the Road
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:29 AM
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I would guess $3-4T.
Most of the debt is held domestically. Britian and Japan are other large holders.
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dmallind
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:33 AM
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7. Bonus points for getting the dom/for split but no cigar on China |
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To give pending guessers an advantage, about 40% of the debt is owned by our own government. Yep - at least $4T is the government in debt to itself. Investors want safe returns - traditionally T-bills. These investors include Social Security etc fund managers.
Less than a third of the debt is owned by foreign entities of any kind.
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RoyGBiv
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:37 AM
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8. I like this question ... |
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It and the common answers are illustrative of several things.
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RUMMYisFROSTED
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:51 AM
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Junkdrawer
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:54 AM
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10. Yep. Larry Wilkerson did a speech covered by TheRealNews.... |
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You know who holds the lion's share of the debt? Japanese housewives.
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dmallind
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:59 AM
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Until a couple of years ago Japan was indeed the biggest foreign debt owner but it was still in the $700B range. It's #2 now with the UK just behind in 3rd.
The biggest owner of US debt at a chunk over $4T is the US government (socsec and so on), but outside that it's institutional investors in the US like pension schemes, insurers and so on.
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RUMMYisFROSTED
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Fri Jan-15-10 10:00 AM
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13. American debt: the new Tamagocchi! |
dmallind
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Fri Jan-15-10 09:55 AM
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Albeit a tad unspecific, but hey I asked for guesses.
As of last month it's just a shade under $800B.
We could pay off our entire Chinese debt for the cost of the TARP program.
And yet I read time and again how China owns us and how we would collapse if China "calls in" their debt.
Follow up Q if anybody cares to keep playing. How much of our imports come from China as a percentage?
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Thu Apr 18th 2024, 08:15 PM
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