INTRODUCTION: Ownership of Federal Securities
Ever wondered who exactly owns our national debt? Turns out, as of June ‘08, about 49% ($4.7T) is held by the federal government itself. Among the rest, about 27.9% ($2.6T) is held by foreign governments: a big number, but smaller than I expected. Also interesting: fully 5% of our debt is in the hands of state and local governments, another 4.9% in mutual funds, and that’s $1T right there.