The public holds over $22 trillion of the national debt. 1 Foreign governments hold a large portion of the public debt as well, while the rest is owned by U.S. banks and investors, the Federal Reserve, state and local governments, mutual funds, pensions funds, insurance companies, and savings bonds.
The United States owes money to many countries, including Japan, mainland China, the U.K., Ireland, Luxembourg, Brazil, Switzerland and Belgium, among others.
According to the Treasury Department, foreign governments hold about $7.7 trillion in U.S. debt, though no country holds more than 5% of the total. As of the end of November, the most recent data available, Japan was the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, with $1.3 trillion.
Breaking Down Ownership of US Debt
China owns about $1.1 trillion in U.S. debt, or a bit more than the amount Japan owns.
For its part, China owned 191,000 acres worth $1.9 billion as of 2019. ... Indeed, there has been a tenfold expansion of Chinese ownership of farmland in the United States in less than a decade. Six states — Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota and Oklahoma — currently ban foreign ownership of farmland.
Brunei is one of the countries with the lowest debt. It has a debt to GDP ratio of 2.46 percent among a population of 439,000 people, which makes it the world's country with the lowest debt. Brunei is a very small country located in southeast Asia.
As of December 2019, the nation with the highest debt-to-GDP ratio is Japan, with a ratio of 237%. In 1992, Japans's Nikkei (stock market) crashed.
At the end of 2020, China's foreign debt, including U.S. dollar debt, stood at roughly $2.4 trillion. Corporate debt is $27 trillion, while the country's total public debt exceeds 300 percent of GDP.
The Chinese government uses U.S. dollars it has on hand to buy Treasurys. It receives these dollars from Chinese companies that receive them as payments for their exports. China's demand for Treasurys helps keep U.S. interest rates low. It allows the U.S. Treasury to borrow more at low rates.
Repercussions. The repercussions for China of such an offloading would be worse. An excess supply of U.S. dollars would lead to a decline in USD rates, making RMB valuations higher. It would increase the cost of Chinese products, making them lose their competitive price advantage.
The U.S. debt is the total federal financial obligation owed to the public and intragovernmental departments. The U.S. national debt is so big because Congress continues both deficit spending and tax cuts.
In 2018 , the Center for Global Development found that Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan and Tajikistan – countries among the poorest in their respective regions — will owe more than half all their foreign debt to China.
When a company fails to repay its debt, creditors file bankruptcy in the court of that country. The court then presides over the matter, and usually, the assets of the company are liquidated to pay off the creditors. ... They cannot forcibly take over a country's assets and neither can they compel the country to pay.
When countries are unable to pay back on their loans to their creditors then they declare bankruptcy and are then considered defaulted. Most of the sovereign defaults are foreign currency defaults.
Under the U.S. Constitution of 1789, the new federal government enjoyed increased authority to manage U.S. finances and to raise revenues through taxation. ... The United States no longer owed money to foreign governments, although it continued to owe money to private investors both in the United States and in Europe.
Every country issues debt, however some nations lend more debt to other nations than they owe. See the charts below from financialranks (sourced from IMF) for the world's largest creditor and debtor nations. As you can see, China, for example, lends far more to other nations than it borrows.
Jerome Kerviel: The most indebted person in the world, owes $4.9 billion.
Global Debt Reaches a Record $226 Trillion.
No, China does not own Walmart. Walmart is founded and owned by the Walton family. They hold 50% of total shares through Walton Enterprises LLC and Walton Family Holdings Trust. Other top investors are American-based companies, including Vanguard Group Inc.
By the start of 2020, Chinese owners controlled about 192,000 agricultural acres in the U.S., worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching and forestry, according to the Agriculture Department.”