RSSThe Growing National Debt Debt Held by the Public 1968 – 2007
This is the cumulative amount of money that the government has borrowed from outside sources to meet its obligations during the years that it runs deficits. Debt Held by the Public includes domestic buyers, such as mutual funds, state and local governments, Federal Reserve banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, and individuals, as well as private foreign entities and central banks of foreign countries. Of the $5.1 trillion in outstanding public debt at the end of 2007, domestic investors owned 55 percent ($2.8 trillion) and foreign investors held 45 percent ($2.2 trillion). When the government runs surpluses, the debt gets paid down as can be seen from the trough in the late 1990s.
But wait a minute! All of the so-called “debt clocks” show that the national debt is now in excess of $9 trillion. Where is the $4 trillion discrepancy? Answer: See the next two charts (Growing National Debt: Intragovernmental Holdings and The Growing National Debt: Combined).
12 Responses to “The Growing National Debt Debt Held by the Public 1968 – 2007”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
December 14th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Where does the money come from, in the debt held by the public?
It can’t be from other governments since there’s under 20 countries that have no debt and I’m sure there surpluses aren’t in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Also, there isn’t much incentive for private banks because the amount owed to them won’t pay itself through interest until 20 or 30 years later.
[Editor - As the name implies, it is literally debt held by the public, where public consists of governments, corporations, and individuals. Take a look at U.S. Debt Held in Foreign Countries for a more detailed breakdown of who owns U. S. Government debt.]
April 6th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
[...] Interest on the National Debt is the net interest paid out after subtracting interest paid to the “trust funds” mentioned in Chart 6. The interest expense amount shown here is essentially interest paid by the government on debt held by the public (See chart The Growing National Debt Held By Public). [...]