Meet the Top Ten Creditors to the USA 26 comments
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Recently the Department of the Treasury / Federal Reserve Board updated the Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities data. The following are the top ten creditors to the USA as of March, 2009:
| S.No. | Country | Holdings as of March, 2009 (Amt. in Billions) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 767.90 |
| 2 | Japan | 686.70 |
| 3 | Caribbean Banking Centers | 213.60 |
| 4 | Oil Exporters | 192.00 |
| 5 | Russia | 138.40 |
| 6 | United Kingdom | 128.20 |
| 7 | Brazil | 126.60 |
| 8 | Luxembourg | 106.10 |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 78.90 |
| 10 | Taiwan | 74.80 |
Not surprisingly, China is still the largest holder of U.S. debt. The Chinese hold $767 B as of March this year compared to $727 at the end of 2008. Contrary to media reports that the Chinese are dumping U.S. debt and not buying any new treasury securities, China has not only been holding U.S. debt but increased it slightly in 2009. In March 2008, they held $490B. China accounts for about 1/4th of the total $3.2T debt owed to foreign countries.
Japan is the second largest creditor to U.S. following China with a total of $686B. Japan has always been a buyer of large amount of U.S. debt.
The number three in the list is not a single country. For some unknown reason the Treasury and the Federal Reserve group the Caribbean islands that are basically off-share tax havens into one category. This group includes the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands, Antilles, Panama and British Virgin Islands. These islands channel huge amount of wealth into the U.S. due to their tax shelter status. They are ahead of many countries such as the UK, Russia, etc with a total of $213B.
The fourth top creditor is again another group of countries together called the Oil Exporters. This includes Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria. This group holds $192B. Middle east countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, etc. receive huge amounts of U.S. dollars when we purchase their crude oil and then they turn around and reinvest them in the U.S. in the form of treasuries and other vehicles. This process is called the petro-dollar recycling in which the U.S. dollar just gets recycled and returns back to the U.S.
Russia has been a heavy buyer of treasuries since last year. From just $42B in March 2008, Russia currently holds a total of $138B in U.S. debt.
Other notable countries that are big creditors to U.S. include Singapore, Taiwan, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. Malaysia holds the smallest amount of treasuries with just $10B. Canada, a close trading partner of U.S., has bought securities worth $11B only. On a year-over-year basis, the total U.S. debt held by foreign countries has risen from $2.5T last March to $3.2 T this year.
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On May 25 08:57 AM johndowd wrote:
> You mean US entitities do not hold any US government debt. I am
> sure the aggregate held by US taxpayers might be the largest. Your
> headline does not carry the word Foreign.
On May 25 09:16 AM Vuke wrote:
> Not to worry. Bernanke could print the way out of any one, or all
> of them, in a flash. That's the beauty of the new, digital money.
Based on their seniority and tenure they are qualified to comment.
They were aware of Japan's and China's position but very shocked by The Caribbean Banking Center's position of the US debt. These are secured creditors and therefore must be taken very seriously and watched as to what they do.
Wow, what has happened to the US economy and they keep printing money which will keep increasing inflation.
God help us if they convert to the Euro or worse Amero.
I agree with them and will reco shorting the USD.
By Johnathan Vrozos
johnathanvrozos.com
johnathanvrozos.ca
Can we agree as credit card holders that he more you SPEND the more DEBT you accumulate? Is that not how it works, whether you are you, IBM, China or the USA?
The go to the FMS site where the US TREASURY DAILY STATEMENT is published and you will see that as of March 21, 2009 our US TREASURY has spend over $7.65TRIL USD so far for FY 2009. There are still four more months left in FY 2009. Not sure how OBAMA can tout a FY 2010 Budget of $3.6TRIL USD when spending for FY 2009 is over double that? What is a BUDGET when it does not include SPENDING?
So in reality it does not matter who buy Americas DEBT or who holds most of it. The only truth that should eb taken away from this is that it will NEVER be paid back so long as we continue to allow the US FED and the two party aristocracy to rule our land.
Then that begs the other question ... why bother with US INCOME TAX if our DEBT will never be paid back?
So there are two parts to a Budget ... receipts(revenues/income) and outlays(expenses). What is the current SPEND RATE as disclosed by the March 21, 2009 US TREASURY DAILY STATEMENT? It is 10.91 ... In other words for every $1USD of tax revenues the US government spends $10.91USD. Let me put that into perspective. During the height of the FDR spending in 1937 on his job works programs(WPA, etc)FDR was spending $2.40USD for every $1 of revenues. Then you might wonder about WW2. What was FDR spending then? Well, LESS ... the SPEND RATE dropped to $2.05USD per every $1USD of revenues. What? Why? Well, tax rates went as high as 94% and every US citizen was dumping every penny of savings into WAR BONDS and they were all on rations ... all for the War effort. Contrast that to what OBAMA has going for his WAR ON TERROR!
So OBAMA has yet to spend a dime on NEW JOBS yet he is already spending 4.5 times more than FDR did in 1937 and 5.3 times more than FDR was spending on WW2(1945).
Then there is something the author of this misleading article left out and that is EXTERNAL DEBT. Can he please explain that and what that sum is currently at?
This article only tells part of the GIGANTIC story that is the American legacy of DEBT!
The largest creditors to the United States government are our grandchildren. They've unkowingly and without their conset had their grandparents and parents indenture their freedom and prosperity.
If the State only had the power, Utopia would begin.
I'll keep my guns, Tao Te Ching and watch the world unfold exactly as it should.
On May 25 08:48 AM Friar Hilarius wrote:
"red-necked religious zealotry"
"scorn of wasteful leisure"
"greedy old capitalists and militarists"
"a new War on Poverty"
"Health care and education available freely"
" the importance of the have-nots having meaningful work"
"generated... by mindless consumption"
"dinosaur industries and unions close their door"
"State can not sit idly buy"
"a return to the truly Christian concept of serving others"
"Red Necks take note ... your selfishness gets you and America nowhere"
> Friar Hilarius
The number of rigs drilling in the US is 1/2 than a year ago because they know something they aren't telling the public. Oil is running out. We've past peak oil. What is left is going to keep getting more and more difficult to get to, and more and more expensive. Easy and plentiful oil is gone.
We need to be gearing up now to make and convert to biofuels. We can make ethanol from any type of plant material at all, and have been able to for over 80 years. Germany did it is WW2. South Africa is doing it now. Brazil is doing it now. We did it in this country over 100 years ago. Prior to WW1 ethanol made from wood was an important commercial source.
If we make biofuels from materials available here in the US, paying workers here to make our energy----we go a long way to cleaning up environmental problems, we help our economy more than any other single thing we could possibly do, and we would have no need to be even in the Middle East wasting American lives and money on a useless and protracted war over oil.
To Fred Linn - way too suppositional and off base a rant. The reason only 1/2 the rigs are working in the U.S. is because the economics on both natural gas (now in surplus) and oil have changed with the down-turn. Couple that with credit tightening, and you get less drilling activity. I can't believe you have never seen a boom and bust drilling cycle like that...they happen all the time!
This, BTW, is also what is happening to the biofuels you reference as the solution to all our problems (environmental issues, energy independence, bad breath...). Of course, the existing ethanol plants are closing left and right. And, to date, you can make an argument that ethanol, especially corn ethanol, has been an expensive boondoggle that isn't really better for the environment. Or for commodity prices.
Prov 22:7 states... and a borrower is a slave to a lender. The US is beholden to its lenders and thus has less and less control of its own future. I don't suspect default...a big dose of inflation is most likely. We need to reward saving, and wise use of money. But this is where we loose control because we need every penny we can get to pay our "base cost of government" and our debtors. China and the others are right to be worried about the value of dollar debt.
Freedom: Well, in Britian, you would get thrown in jail if you preached without a "permit"(John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in an English prison for preaching). The Catholic church would burn you at the stake for translating the Bible into English, German etc... In Muslim countries if you curse their religion, you die. If you refuse to convert, you can not acquire basic things like education and a decent job. In China, do you think the Communist party will allow itself to be voted out? Have you forgotten Tienanmen square?
America is steadily loosing its own freedoms by a Boa Constrictor type process...Freedom is Real.
The Biggest Dino industry is Huge Bloated Government and all the retirees' pensions. California is leading the way, with a 20B deficit and a resounding "no more debt" vote at the polls, they are finally beginning to CUT government spending. THINK OF IT! Government living within its means....revolutionary! Now, many of the govt workers will have to go get a "real" job instead of pushing government paper. But wait...the Federal Government may bail them out!
Education in this country has been dumbed down, and so the whole country has suffered. As the left got more and more control, so the quality went down. First they threw God out of the mindset and replaced it with Evolution. Then there was a moral collapse. Then they tried to deny the cause, and now there is a collapse of integrity...buffoons run our educational system producing...you guessed it more buffoons who are lazy and feel good about themselves. The parents who, themselves are a product of this system have no clue how to support their child's eduation. The schools are up-the-creek-without-a... That is why we home schooled our children. We will never climb out of second class status without a whole generation of reform.
Having good work to do! Absolutely necessary. American businesses and Government have shipped so many jobs overseas where the wages are so low that we cannot compete. Now the Companies make lots of money, leadership gets big compensation while the little guy goes to work at McDonnalds! Not everyone is cut out to be a scientist, engineer etc. Every government needs to guide its economy so most people can have a decent life, not just so Big Business can make the most money. A long time ago, when companies were more local entities, making the most money for the company generally benefited the local area where the company was located. Today, much of the money goes somewhere else....
The last "War on Poverty" via Pres Johnson, resulted in the destruction of the family structure of the poor. We have a violent drug infested inner city culture as a direct result. I'm not sure what you mean by the term "war on poverty".
sorry for the long wind...
On May 25 08:48 AM Friar Hilarius wrote:
> So the USA is in hock up to its eyeballs and may not get out of its
> debt for decades or generations?
>
> As an admirer of all things American apart from red-necked religious
> zealotry (extending to illusory freedom worship) ... I wonder when
> America is going to get back to innovation, welcoming the poor, scorn
> of wasteful leisure and savings to re-build wealth
>
> The courage of the young military should be an example to the greedy
> old capitalists and militarists
>
> This courage should be applied to a new War on Poverty in which American
> ingenuity is again made available to the World, and trade is re-built
> in both directions
>
> The old enemy of isolationism is the one enemy which America can
> no longer afford, however tempting it might appear
>
> Health care and education available freely to all and not just the
> rich are key ingredients of a healthy, growing and wealthier America
>
>
> It is time the haves recognised the importance of the have-nots having
> meaningful work ... which is generated not by mindless consumption
> of trash .. but production of goods and services which the world
> actually needs
>
> The sooner dinosaur industries and unions close their door and well
> educated innovative businesses receive invested cash to flourish
> the better. In a complex technological world the State can not sit
> idly buy hoping that mindless consumerism will save the people<br/>
>
> Education, research and technology are the way forward
>
> So too is a return to the truly Christian concept of serving others
>
>
> Red Necks take note ... your selfishness gets you and America nowhere
>
>
> Friar Hilarius
Finally, I am not sure that China has a spare $2 Trillion at present either, so things could get interesting?
On May 25 08:57 AM johndowd wrote:
> You mean US entitities do not hold any US government debt. I am
> sure the aggregate held by US taxpayers might be the largest. Your
> headline does not carry the word Foreign.
I know economists think that all this is "good for the economy" but the fact that everyone thinks like you do, does not mean you're not insane.
Allamad says" The Chinese are making over $100 billion a year just on the interest from all the U.S. debt they own. Makes me feel good that I'm helping to fund the Chinese military (which is now building aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and space-based missle interceptors). Thanks George and Barak. "
That is because we know you better than most of your creditors and have suffered along with the average American in the past during bouts of hyper-inflation. We know that it's just a matter of time before inflation is unleashed to pay off this debt, so why bother buying it.
Biofuels are producable from readily available raw materials that are right here. Workers to make and sell biofuels will be located here. Biofuels are renewable and sustainable---we can make as much as we need. Biofuels are being used now and have been for about the last 30 years to reduce pollution in the environment. Biofuels can do anything and everything that can be done with petroleum, use all of the technology and infrastructure we currently use with no or only minor modification. And we can have many valuable co-products from biofuel production. If we make ethanol from waste wood, we have forests to use and enjoy, we have lumber, hunting and fishing, and all the other myriad products of the wood industry----and as long as we manage and replace what we use, we continue to have it forever. If demand goes down, simply delay harvesting for awhile---it is still there to use when it is needed later.
I prefer that to a "boom and bust" cycle of drilling acivity. It seems a much more stable way of doing things and managing our resources to me.