Isn’t it funny how casually we discuss not only “millions” but “billions” and even “trillions” of dollars these days? You’d think from the way we talk about money that there is no limit to anyone’s bank account.
Perhaps you spotted a “little” news item recently by The Associated Press, declaring quite matter-of-factly that “China, the biggest buyer of U.S. Treasury securities, has increased its holdings for a fourth straight month.”
How big of an increase? Oh, the figure was up by only 2.6 percent.
And how much is that in dollars?
Well, Communist China is now the proud owner of $906.8 billion worth of U.S. Treasury debt!
And even that huge figure is small potatoes compared with the total foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. That figure comes to $4.3 trillion!
Japan is next on the list, holding $877.4 billion worth of U.S. Treasury debt. Then comes Great Britain, with $477.6 billion, followed by other nations.
And even all that money is only a fraction of our total, staggering $13.9 trillion national debt.
Does it make you nervous, or maybe downright frightened, that we owe so much money to so many foreign nations – some of which do not have benevolent aims toward the United States?