The US Government doesn’t have the money to continue funding the war, social programs and the new massive bailout package. So the question remains: who owns our debt? The following chart contains the percentages of foreign debt held by other countries as of August 2008. Keep in mind this is only foreign debt and doesn’t show the massive amount of domestically held debt, which would take up half of the pie in itself.

Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities
(in billions of dollars)
Holdings1 at the end of Period
Country Aug 2008 Jul 2008 Jun 2008 May 2008 Apr 2008 Mar 2008 Feb 2008 Jan 2008 Dec 2007 Nov 2007 Oct 2007 Sep 2007 Aug 2007
Japan 585.9 593.4 583.8 578.7 592.2 600.7 586.6 586.9 581.2 590.9 601.7 591.9 595.8
China Mainland 541.0 518.7 503.8 506.8 502.0 490.6 486.9 492.6 477.6 458.9 459.1 467.7 471.2
United Kingdom2 307.4 291.5 280.4 272.5 247.8 201.1 181.1 161.9 158.2 174.3 155.0 120.3 99.8
Oil Exporters3 179.8 173.9 170.4 164.3 153.9 150.8 146.1 140.9 137.9 138.7 141.6 137.1 134.7
Caribbean Banking Centers4 147.7 133.7 122.4 104.7 115.4 107.1 103.0 108.1 116.7 107.4 105.6 99.1 103.8
Brazil 146.2 148.4 151.6 151.4 149.5 149.1 146.6 141.7 129.9 121.7 113.9 110.5 107.7
Luxembourg 77.5 75.8 88.6 80.4 84.8 92.7 83.1 68.4 69.7 68.3 63.3 58.4 57.1
Russia 74.4 74.1 65.3 63.7 60.2 42.4 38.4 35.2 32.7 33.5 33.6 31.8 31.9
Hong Kong 61.2 60.6 61.2 61.4 63.2 60.6 57.5 54.4 51.2 51.7 51.3 52.6 53.2
Switzerland 45.3 45.1 44.4 42.1 42.5 41.2 39.4 39.3 38.9 38.1 37.8 37.0 37.4
Germany 41.5 41.1 40.9 45.0 43.7 42.2 42.2 42.7 41.7 39.1 41.8 41.8 42.3
Norway 41.3 41.8 43.3 47.1 45.3 44.5 34.0 33.6 26.2 27.6 25.5 22.9 6.4
Taiwan 40.6 42.3 40.9 40.1 42.6 41.2 38.8 38.9 38.2 37.1 40.7 39.9 39.5
Korea 37.9 35.3 36.5 38.5 40.5 40.7 41.4 42.1 39.2 37.8 37.0 39.4 42.6
Turkey 34.0 32.4 30.3 28.9 31.1 28.7 28.5 28.2 25.6 25.6 28.1 28.3 29.2
Mexico 33.5 36.0 42.5 40.4 38.0 38.8 36.5 35.6 34.5 32.0 30.5 30.0 30.2
Thailand 31.7 31.8 32.4 32.8 27.9 25.7 30.5 28.9 27.4 27.5 22.8 24.7 22.9
Singapore 31.0 31.4 30.4 30.6 33.5 33.3 33.5 38.6 39.8 40.2 38.8 36.6 37.8
Canada 27.7 26.9 28.4 30.3 25.9 22.0 22.7 24.4 18.7 24.1 15.9 17.3 18.8
India 14.2 13.0 11.7 10.3 10.5 11.8 14.4 14.6 14.9 14.8 14.9 10.8 12.1
Netherlands 14.1 15.1 15.1 15.7 15.5 15.1 14.1 15.9 15.2 14.2 14.8 15.1 16.6
Poland 13.7 13.9 13.3 12.4 12.5 11.6 10.2 10.3 12.9 11.1 9.8 10.6 10.5
Egypt 12.8 13.4 12.3 12.8 12.7 12.7 12.0 11.6 10.4 10.6 9.9 9.9 10.1
Sweden 12.7 12.4 12.4 13.2 13.1 13.2 13.6 13.4 13.7 14.1 14.5 14.8 15.7
Chile 12.4 13.1 11.7 11.1 10.1 9.7 8.6 9.0 8.7 8.5 7.5 6.8 7.6
Italy 12.1 10.2 10.6 11.7 10.6 11.3 11.3 12.7 14.6 15.5 14.1 13.4 13.2
Belgium 11.8 12.0 12.4 12.4 12.5 12.8 13.2 13.1 13.2 14.2 14.6 14.6 14.6
Ireland 11.6 11.2 14.2 15.8 18.5 17.8 15.6 15.6 18.7 17.5 17.0 16.3 16.8
All Other 139.2 136.4 135.4 136.0 138.0 144.1 144.3 145.1 146.0 142.2 138.0 136.0 137.9
Grand Total 2740.3 2684.9 2646.6 2611.2 2594.1 2513.8 2434.1 2403.8 2353.7 2337.1 2299.2 2235.3 2217.5

Source: Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board
October 16, 2008

1 Estimated foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury marketable and non-marketable bills, bonds, and notes reported under the Treasury International Capital (TIC) reporting system are based on annual Surveys of Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities and on monthly data.

2 United Kingdom includes Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

3 Oil exporters include Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria.

4 Caribbean Banking Centers include Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Panama. Beginning with new series for June 2006, also includes British Virgin Islands.