Who Owns US Debt

Lowry, Ralph. “Q&A: Gross Debt versus Debt Held by the Public.” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, https://www.crfb.org/papers/qa-gross-debt-versus-debt-held-public. 

Direct Quote: Of the $23.6 trillion of debt held by the public, we estimate about 34 percent is owned by foreign entities, 43 percent by private and public domestic entities, and 23 percent by the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve has significantly expanded its Treasury holdings since the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis began in 2020. Foreign holdings come from a mixture of foreign individuals, businesses, banks, and governments. Of the roughly $7.9 trillion of foreign-held debt, 17 percent ($1.3 trillion) is held by Japan and 14 percent ($1.1 trillion) is held by China. The next largest holders are the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Luxembourg, who each hold between $320 billion and $560 billion of U.S. debt. On a combined basis, the Eurozone holds about $1.3 trillion, and Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country (OPEC) member nations together hold about $250 billion.

Summary/My Interpretation: As the US has continued to amass debt, they find themselves owing different actors large sums of money. Specifically, while it is often believed that foreign nations are the largest holders of US debt, this is not true. In fact, the majority of US debt is held by domestic actors as they are the consumer base the US most prefers selling to. Additionally, large nations such as Japan and China also play a role in the US debt as they hold nearly $2.5 trillion in US securities. 

How I Plan To Use This In My Project: One of the main goals of my project besides examining how the debt affects the middle class is being able to provide an overview of the figure and explain where exactly it came from. I hope to use this article to explain who has a stake in the US debt crisis as well as show the different actors that are contributing to a ballooning deficit.