Jump to content

Default on Debt held by Wealthy


john5746

Recommended Posts

Not really serious here, but was thinking the other day - If most of the US debt is held by Americans, how much is held by the top 10%? I couldn't find any data on that, but would be nice if most of it was indeed held by the top 10%. Then, we could just rip up those IOU's and thank them for their sacrifice.

 

So, maybe the far right was almost correct - maybe the answer would be to default on our debt - but only the portion held by the wealthy. It is only fair, they have benefited the most from the bailout of the financial system. They are winning the monopoly game so readily that many are ready to throw the board and walk away. Maybe this would help?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not really serious here, but was thinking the other day - If most of the US debt is held by Americans, how much is held by the top 10%? I couldn't find any data on that, but would be nice if most of it was indeed held by the top 10%. Then, we could just rip up those IOU's and thank them for their sacrifice.

 

So, maybe the far right was almost correct - maybe the answer would be to default on our debt - but only the portion held by the wealthy. It is only fair, they have benefited the most from the bailout of the financial system. They are winning the monopoly game so readily that many are ready to throw the board and walk away. Maybe this would help?

 

If you understood socio-economics you would have not suggested such a thing. Defaulting on the debt does not work that way. If the United States government simply decided to stop paying the interest on the debt, they would stop getting loans, thus the government would have to cut its yearly funding drastically: Military, Welfare programs, Child Healthcare, Government Operations, EPA, etc.

 

The debt is public money not private it would technically be held by any and all taxpayers. So it cannot be just defaulted to the rich. Defaulting doesn't work that way, and public money doesn't work that way. All that said you did mention in the beginning of your post,

Not really serious here, but was thinking the other day

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really I'd like to know to whom are the U.S. indebted ?

 

Well in this case the public debt would be owed to the treasury bond holders among various other investors who give the United States Loans through purchasing United States securities. I am not quite sure, but I would imagine that it would be a combination of other nations/states, the united states public, the federal reserve and various other wealthy individuals.

 

I actually just looked it up on wikipedia, and this is a chart from there showing ownership of US debt in terms of who owns treasury securities.

 

Estimated_ownership_of_treasury_securities_by_year.gif

 

Out of the 28% of debt that is owned by foreign groups.. . .

 

Composition_of_U.S._Long-Term_Treasury_Debt_2005-2010.PNG

 

Us-china-trade-data-foreign-holdings-treasury-securities-2000-2010.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the info.

After questionning I googled and found this article.

 

But I never get a very specific answer.

All these, American,British, Chinese & others have names & adresses. I guess 99% of U.S. debt is owned by a few hundred names and adresses, not more. And the part owned by americans must give much less identities.

Is this secret information?

Who are they?

 

----------------

BTW I googled "carib bnkng ctrs" from your 2nd diagram and got first result about "tax haven". I was really surprised that part of treasury debt was hold by tax evadors.

Edited by michel123456
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the info.

After questionning I googled and found this article.

 

But I never get a very specific answer.

All these, American,British, Chinese & others have names & adresses. I guess 99% of U.S. debt is owned by a few hundred names and adresses, not more. And the part owned by americans must give much less identities.

Is this secret information?

Who are they?

 

----------------

BTW I googled "carib bnkng ctrs" from your 2nd diagram and got first result about "tax haven". I was really surprised that part of treasury debt was hold by tax evadors.

 

Yeah I found that very interesting too, it seems odd that things like this are never investigated by any media whatsoever. And the only ones who seem to touch on it are the crazies who want to "end the fed" and go back to the gold standard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the feeling that the game would be clearer if we knew the identities of the players. For the moment we have the well-known politicians on one side and ghosts on the other. From time to time a name like G.Soros comes out to feed some conspiration theory, there must be others. But there is always supiscion: why do you want this information?

So I ask again, is this a secret? Or is it only a very difficult to get information?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.