Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The Top 10 Foreign Holders of US Government Debt (in one graphic)


(Globalpost chart via BI)

5 comments:

  1. Good example that the US dollar will still be the world's reserve currency and destination for global money in times of great fears and uncertainty. But people do not realize the obvious: that currencies are only useful legal-accounting fictions that are widely-held and trusted means of exchange and unit of account. They are not long-term holders of value except the US dollar. Gold is a commodity and asset that cannot serve as a useful currency. The policies of the central banks, global oligarchs and most governments are completely unrelated to the vast needs of their citizens, smaller businesses and taxpayers in most nations. Please visit this new website: www.i-globals.org to see how people can collectively create their own universal basic income thru a new private, debt-free, complementary, digital currency using some common-sense principles of modern monetary theory (MMT). Never lose sleep over the overall debt of any monetarily sovereign nations such as the U.S. since it can never run out of dollars. Best wishes to all in 2015.

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    1. "They are not long-term holders of value except the US dollar." wtf? "Never lose sleep over the overall debt of any monetarily sovereign nations such as the U.S. since it can never run out of dollars." Oh, that's reassuring. http://www.i-globals.org ==> crank paper money scheme

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    2. Economists-Say-Dumb-Things Chronicles: 'Debt Is Money We Owe To Ourselves'


      If 'we' are the entire planet, equally and without distinction, then perhaps one might say, ok, although it loses all meaning and significance. I would not mind pooling my household books with one of the Banking billionaires and to be able to step up to the Fed's free cash window anytime to do my business, with the assurance that I have a government guarantee underpinning my ledger, but alas.

      And this is a problem because the paramount issue we are facing today is the historically extreme concentration of capital assets in a relatively few hands, and the burden of unpayable debts being imposed upon a large segment of the people by a system that has been hijacked by the moneyed interests.


      I wonder if the average American who is losing their car and house, and who is being hounded by debt collectors for whom those debts seems to matter a great deal, can use that argument with the Banks.

      Putting aside private debts, let's just stay in the realm of sovereign debt, where the economic imagination can more easily take its flights of fancy.

      Debt is just money we owe to ourselves is similar to the flat pronouncement that a sovereign that issues its own currency can never default. Money is just an accounting entry so why the fuss? And from this comes a Pandora's Box of muddy thinking, a selective myopia towards history, and Trillion Dollar Platinum coins.

      I wonder if Greece can use this argument, that debt is just money that we owe to 'ourselves,' when they meet with the Germans this week.

      But no, the US is different. Every other country may fail, and many have including that insubstantial nation of Russia not all that long ago, but not us. We are young and immortal. Our benchmark for virtue is power, and we are virtuous enough to be able to say that when things are not working out as we planned, we are able to decree that 'money is whatever we say it is,' and God help anyone who does not agree.

      http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2015/02/economists-says-dumb-things-chronicles.html

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    3. @pierre

      It seems history has already proven you wrong, as far as gold being a poor monetary unit and the dollar being a good store of value (to mention nothing of economic theory).

      As far as being the world reserve currency, the question is: for how long?

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    4. The dollar. LMAO! Nothing else needs to be said.

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