The Skeptical Optimist: Pie Chart of Who Owns the Debt, and Bar Chart of Who’s Been Buying It

The Skeptical Optimist: Pie Chart of Who Owns the Debt, and Bar Chart of Who’s Been Buying It: "If we’re supposed to be scared of the foreigners who are buying up our debt, I guess we’d better stop looking across the Pacific for the culprits, and start keeping an eye on the Brits—because in the six months through March ’06, they increased their holdings almost six times as much as the Chinese did ($84B vs $15B). Not only that, but the Canadians were right behind the Chinese ($12B vs $15B).

In that environment, it’s tough to figure out who we’re supposed to be scared of, isn’t it? I gave up a long time ago; I’m just grateful they’re helping (indirectly) to fund our economy’s growth, and helping (indirectly) to keep our tax rates lower than they’d otherwise have to be to keep our debt burden (debt-to-GDP ratio) from growing. (Thank you, foreigners! Maybe you should consider immigrating...)

In any case, the two biggest groups of T-bond buyers swamped everybody else (see the two longest bars at the top of the chart). Those two groups are made up of you, me, our families, our friends, and our neighbors. "