american owes many trillions of dollars... who to?!?

Question

when did the debt begin?

Answer 1

ok, there is a difference between debt and deficit. a deficit is simply put when we inport more than we outport. They look at it as a loss because we aren't producing the items in america, we are buying them elsewhere. Even if they are american companies it counts as deficit, the actual debt isn't in the trillions at all and it is owed to the world bank and scattered other countries like france and china.

Answer 2

The United States public debt, commonly called the national debt, gross federal debt or U.S. government debt, is the amount of money owed by the United States federal government to creditors who hold US Debt Instruments. This does not include the money owed by states, corporations, or individuals, nor does it include the money owed to Social Security beneficiaries in the future. As of August 21, 2006, the total U.S. government debt was $8.507 trillion.

In 2005 the public debt was 64.7% of GDP. Acccording to the CIA's World Factbook, this meant that the U.S. public debt was the 35th largest in the world by percentage of GDP. In absolute value, it is easily the largest.

It is important to differentiate between public debt and external debt. The former is the amount owned by the government to its creditors, whether they are nationals or foreigners. The latter is the debt of all sectors of the economy (public and private), owned to foreigners. In the U.S., foreign ownership of the public debt is a significant part of the nation's external debt (see also below).


**********At the end of 2004, foreign holdings of Treasury debt were $1.886 trillion, which was 44% of the total debt held by the public. Foreign central banks owned 64% of the Federal debt held by foreign residents; private investors owned nearly all the rest (figures are from the Analytical Perspectives of the 2006 U.S. Budget, page 257). The country holding by far the most debt is Japan which held $639 billion at the end of April 2006. In recent years the People's Republic of China has also become a major holder of Treasury debt, holding $323.5 billion at that time.

Answer 3

Everyone.

Want to get into the action, buy a T-Bill! I think it pays better than 10% interest! Minimum investment is like $10,000 or more.

At the current time if we were to STOP borrowing and pay back at the current levels, it wouldn't be before the NEXT millenium we were out of debt!

Image YOU charging SO much on your master card that it would take over 100 years to pay off the debt!

Answer 4

James Monroe devised that deficit spending was beneficial for the government. It has been proven in the US that deficit spending can get the nation out of a recession.

But to answer your question: We the citizens own most of the debt.

Answer 5

Excluding all of the political views of people who didnt know what they were saying. We owe other countries the money. When a country has a surplus they loan money to countries who are running a deficit. We currently owe several different countries money and it is their actual government or treasury.

Answer 6

Mostly to Japan.
They carry ~40 per cent of the nations debt.

They may regain Hawaii by the time GW Bush gets out of office.

Answer 7

Oh please! The United States could pay back that money in no time! Most Americans are rich anyway, so it's not that big of a deal as long as we start taking care of it right away!

Answer 8

clinton had a federal surplus.........911 took most of what, bush burned what was left, and then invaded iraq, and THEN gave tax cuts which further increased the debt.

we owe virtually every country with whom we trade......they send us goods, we send them IOU's.

china is at the top of the list.....

Answer 9

Me. And if you don't pay it by midnight tomorrow night, I'll send it to collections.

Answer 10

world bank