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Foreign holdings of U.S. debt hit record $5.43 trillion

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And Japan increased its holdings 0.5% to $1.12 billion. Japan now trails China’s holdings by just $32.1 billion.

I think that should read = And Japan increased its holdings to o.5% to $1.12 trillion (not billion).

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kiwi07Oct. 17, 2012 - 08:28AM JST

I think that should read = And Japan increased its holdings to o.5% to $1.12 trillion (not billion).

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.

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Check out how much of Japan's debt is owned by foreigners.

Hardly anything.

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JapanGalOct. 17, 2012 - 01:57PM JST

Check out how much of Japan's debt is owned by foreigners.

Hardly anything.

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).

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The Treasury Department says total foreign holdings rose to a record $5.43 trillion in August. That’s up 1.5% from the July level.

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.

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What can you say about our credit card nation. Keep borrowing and kick the responsibilities down the road.

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