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© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.Foreign holdings of U.S. debt hit record $5.43 trillion
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kiwi07
I think that should read = And Japan increased its holdings to o.5% to $1.12 trillion (not billion).
basroil
kiwi07Oct. 17, 2012 - 08:28AM JST
AP and AFP both have gone down in quality quite a bit lately.
Interestingly, foreign held debt when bush ended was just 1.8 trillion higher than when he started, and obama has tacked on 50%more (2.6 trillion) in half the time. If obama stays "on track" Japan and China will be at 2 trillion each four years from now..
And why doesn't Japan just sell off the debts? They would be able to pay back half their own debt overnight.
nath
Check out how much of Japan's debt is owned by foreigners.
Hardly anything.
basroil
JapanGalOct. 17, 2012 - 01:57PM JST
Somewhere around 400 billion dollars, with half that in Chinese hands. Most of the 13 trillion dollars is in Japanese hands, so the first step would be to make that 100% rather than just most. USA doesn't have that luxury though, but it does still hold about 120 billion in Japanese debts (and another 400 in equity).
basroil
More concerning isn't the public debt ownership (though it did nearly double since Bush), rather securities holding in general. It too rose from 2.8 trillion dollars to now over 3.8 trillion dollars, in just the 2010-2011 period. Debts and equity put together now are at over 12 trillion dollars, far more than the 6.5 trillion the US holds in other countries. In many ways it's more dangerous than the 200% GDP japanese debt.
nath
What can you say about our credit card nation. Keep borrowing and kick the responsibilities down the road.