What countries or organizations does the United States borrow its funding from?

Question

I have always been curious about this. We have a large national debt and I just want to know where the money comes from.

Answer 1

I presume you are referring to the Government's Treasury itself, and not the country as a whole including private companies and citizens.

The debt is primarily in the form of Government Bonds and Bills issued by the Treasury, largely to private entities---domestic and foreign. These are actively traded on the market, and are usually considered very reliable, hence the lower yield on government securities compared to those issued by private corporations. Buying a savings bond is a way of lending money to the government.

Countries directly borrowing from commercial banks, including those who wind up borrowing directly from institutions like the World Bank or IMF to restructure their debts, are usually very impoverished or economically unstable third world nations.

Answer 2

The vast majority of the US Gov't debt is held by US citizens -- in terms of nationality, we owe ourselves most of the money. This includes individuals, banks, corporations, mutual funds, and the government itself (eg, the Social Security Trust Fund, which is a major chunk of the national debt). This is clear from tonalc's link above, which also shows the foreign holdings -- that's a great website BTW.

The debt is originally issued when the US Treasury holds public auctions to sell new bonds, or sells thru it's web site. Then the bonds are actively traded. Foreign entities can of course participate in all this, which is why a minority fraction of debt is held by individual, corporations, mutual funds, and governments in other countries.

You too can be one of the people owning this government debt, and all the morons here on Yahoo Answers will then be scared of YOU! See link below...

Answer 3

The top three countries are Japan, China and the United Kingdom.

Next on the list are OPEC, Korea, Taiwan, Caribbean banks, Hong Kong and Germany.

Answer 4

The US is making itself a 2nd rate nation. Most other countries have policies to protect themselves, we in the US gave away our strengths. Much of our money is foreign investment - this is slowly being withdrawn in favor of the Euro. When China grows it will self-invest and not prop up a second rate US. Perhaps Bush is correct on terrorism but he sure has heck wrecked the US economy - is Neanderthal when it comes to his bible belt ways on abortion & stem cell research.