Who holds the national debt?

Question

Who have we actually sold our national debt to? Who do we pay if they decide to come calling?

Who have we actually sold our national debt to? Who do we pay if they decide to come calling? Sources please.

Answer 1

The US PUBLIC

READ: http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpdodt.htm

From: http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=US+National+Debt+Holder&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DApCyeVs7DeQlVl.K.jMIrigazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F*-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAmCwzoiqTmUejBmNlrqgkYEazKIX%2FSIG%3D11ia1qo58%2F**http%253a%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=US+National+Debt+Holder

The Chinese portion:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HE27Cb01.html

From: http://search.yahoo.com/search?&adult_done=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&adult_cancel=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fweb%2Fadvanced&_adv_prop=web&ei=UTF-8&vst=0&vf=all&vm=p&fl=1&vl=lang_en&n=100&_bcrumb=3ec18c415970687154e3dbd956121fb2%2C1165522348&p=US+National+Debt+held+by+Chinese%3F&adult_done=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&adult_cancel=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fweb%2Fadvanced&_adv_prop=web&ei=UTF-8&vm=p&fl=1&vl=lang_en&n=100&fr=ks-ans

The Japanese portion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Debt

From:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?&adult_done=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&adult_cancel=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fweb%2Fadvanced&_adv_prop=web&ei=UTF-8&vst=0&vf=all&vm=p&fl=1&vl=lang_en&n=100&_bcrumb=cb92fb32e537084876755ce2139b8d66%2C1165522122&p=US+National+Debt+held+by+Japan%3F&adult_done=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&adult_cancel=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fweb%2Fadvanced&_adv_prop=web&ei=UTF-8&vm=p&fl=1&vl=lang_en&n=100&fr=ks-ans

Answer 2

Most of it is held by the Japanese and Chinese.

I hold a tiny little bit myself......