Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Who Is Really Bailing out America? Is it the Chinese? or the Gulf Arabs?


Did you know that Of the $5.5 trillion to date that has been borrowed from the public by the Treasury, $3 trillion of it is Treasury debt owned by foreign central banks? True!

It turns out that the Chinese and other Asian countries (along with the Gulf Arabs and many other governments) have been generous and ready lenders to the US Treasury. The question remains whether they will continue to be. It took our fine republic a few hundred years to run up $5.2 trillion in debt, but over the next three years Treasury borrowing could exceed $8 trillion, a staggering 60% increase in the real national debt. Is it rational to believe that foreigners will double their holdings of US Treasury debt from $3 trillion to $6 trillion in the next three years? Yes, indeed! Where else would they get that amount of money?
...complete article

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