To people who ask, “who do we owe all this US debt to?”
Answer: to anyone holding a U.S. Treasury bond. That’s who.
Discussion
The US government itself, and the banks
and the IMF
We fund the IMF, that and a few other western nations. If we owe them anything it's because they bought US Treasuries.
Yeah I don't owe anything to anyone so they can find that money elsewhere.
Ultimately the circle of debt comes all the way round to where you personally are owed debt, to which you have to pay
Yes, but most people don’t realize the extent to which those bonds undergird the entire economy.
Someone might think he has 5M in assets (bonds) gets his income, pays his bills, enters into contracts. If that money is not real, then he defaults, the guy building his house doesn’t get paid, the company leasing the car to the guy building his house doesn’t get paid, etc. Then multiply that by millions.
I quite agree.
I was simply pointing out "who we owe our debt to" because I have seen an avalanche of those questions over the last week. The question always pops up but, Lordy! - "This time it's different".
I suppose it should be pointed out that most of the countries that owe debt essentially owes it in the same way but . . .