Dissecting the $14 Trillion National Debt

Posted on Nov 23, 2011

borman818 (CC-BY)

While the “super committee” charged with hammering out a debt deal hits a partisan wall and threatens the American public with austerity cuts, editors at The Guardian’s Data Blog take crack at breaking down U.S. national debt by country. At $1.14 trillion, China owns the biggest chunk of it, followed by Japan and the United Kingdom.

As the numbers point out, the national debt has nearly doubled in a mere six years to an astronomical $14 trillion. —ARK

The Guardian Data Blog:

The key findings are:
• As of April this year, US Treasury bonds owned overseas accounted for $4.7tn of the national debt—up 8% on last year. That’s not everything—the US now owes over $14tn.
• China is the biggest owner of US [Treasury] bonds—over $1.14tn by September this year—down -0.3% on last year.
• Bonds bought in the UK (mainly private investors and pension funds) are third on the list at $421.6bn—up 120.7%, which is the biggest increase.
• Russia saw the biggest decrease, down 45.3% since last year to $94.6bn.

It reflects a US national debt which has grown starkly, from $7.8tn in 2005 to busting through the US debt ceiling $14.294tn earlier this year—according to these day by day figures.

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