(CNSNews.com) - At the close of business on Tuesday, the debt of the
federal government exceeded $15 trillion for the first time--with the
largest single owner of the publicly held portion of that debt being the
Federal Reserve.
Over the past year, as the Federal Reserve massively increased its
holdings of U.S. Treasury securities and entities in China
marginally decreased theirs, the Fed surpassed the Chinese as the top
owner of publicly held U.S. government debt.
In its latest monthly report,
the Federal Reserve said that as of Sept. 28, it owned $1.665 trillion
in U.S. Treasury securities. That was more than double the $812 billion
in U.S. Treasury securities the Fed said it owned as of Sept. 29, 2010.
Meanwhile, as of the end of this September,
entities in mainland China owned $1.1483 trillion in U.S. Treasury
securities, according to data published today
by the U.S. Treasury Department. That was down slightly from the
$1.1519 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities the Chinese owned as of the
end of September 2010, according to the same Treasury Department report.
Thus, at the end of September 2010, the Chinese owned about $339.9
billion more in U.S. Treasury securities than the Fed owned at that
time. By the end of September 2011, the Fed owned about $516.7 billion
more in U.S. Treasury securities than the Chinese owned.
The U.S. Treasury Department divides the federal government’s debt
into two general categories: debt held by the public—the type owned by
the Chinese and the Federal Reserve—and “intragovernmental debt,” which
consists of what essentially are IOUs the Treasury gives to government
trust funds such as the Social Security trust when it takes and spends
their money on other things.
The current total national debt of $15.0336 trillion, reported by the Treasury today, consists of approximately $10.3145 trillion in debt held by the public and $4.7191 trillion in intragovernmental debt.
The combined $2.8133 trillion in U.S. government debt held by the
public that is now owned by the Federal Reserve and the Chinese equals
more than 27 percent of all U.S. government debt held by the public.
Currently, foreign entities, including those in China, own $4.6603
trillion of the U.S. government debt held by the public. These foreign
entities, together with the Federal Reserve, own a combined $6.3253
trillion of the U.S. government’s debt held by the public.
That $6.3253 trillion in Federal Reserve-and-foreign-held debt equals
more than 61 percent of the U.S. government’s publicly held debt.
