That is no longer true. The single largest holder of U.S. governmental debt is the Federal Reserve. They print the stuff and then buy in back in treasury notes. How that makes any sense at all is a head scratcher. Sooner or later, the "big reset" is going to happen...

Pretty much the whole world is going bankrupt, they are all operating under a bubble...k

Most of our national debt is held by Americans in the form of Treasury notes, bills, bonds.

Jim

They have the majority of folks by the short hair, so people will not suddenly demand things to be corrected. It is said that a full 70% of Americans don't even have $1000 in savings, so who the heck wants things to "correct" if you live paycheck to paycheck (or gov. check to gov. check). The powers that be know all that stuff. In a massive collapse, it ain't gunna be like October of 1929. It won't be soup lines and everyone packing up to go stay at the farm with Maw and Paw til things get better. It will, with todays self centered society, be more along the lines of Mad Max or The Postman.

Yeah, you can say the Federal Reserve is "Americans" but probably not quite what you inferred here. 39%, Sir James, 39% as of last fall was held by the Fed Reserve. Like I said, an interesting scheme; print the stuff and then buy back the IOUs. I'm sure your friend Ms Yellen will have them print and buy back more. Enjoy the run while it lasts...

https://www.thebalance.com/who-owns-the-u-s-national-debt-3306124

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Watch out, I am surprised no one here remembers how they fixed all the debt in foreign countries.

I wouldn't know either except when I was young I worked with a lot of people that went through a debt riddance in their country.

Easy -- change the paper money -- print new money different color and that means all debt is wiped out and we start new.

Throw your old paper money in the stove and burn it !

They al told me keep your change (coins) it costs too much to change them.

I hope it doesn't happen while I am alive but it is a cure.

Bad part is that history Repeats itself !
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Its been going on since we formed a government and not just in this country the wealth of a country is in its resources not the paper it prints.

"The public holds over $21 trillion, or almost 78%, of the national debt." - Source: Your article.

Jim

Did you read a little closer...? The article or whoever considers the Fed Reserve part of the "public". It is, after all, a "private entity"

Good question Grandpa. I wonder why other poor countries don't print $ like we do...I suppose they can't get people to buy treasury bonds like we do, I don't know.

It's interesting how the Fed govt operates so out of balance, yet states & local govts seem to try to operate on a balanced budget.

I wish I had the answers to your question Grandpa. I've been wondering this myself. Thanks for asking the question on here.

The US dollar and most other money, only has value because people believe it has value. It's kind of like Tinkerbell. If people stop believing in the value of the dollar it will die. I think the dollar can take a lot of abuse by creating more still.

Keith

Simply put the US has a money tree, for now. As others mentioned as long as oil and most international goods are sold in Us dollars.( think international fur sales)The us can print money and sell bonds worldwide. Its great racket, and the reason the EU globalist, and China are trying to take us down. They were hoping the Euro would do that.

If America was smart it would use this awesome opportunity to to build up our military and infrastructure, and become energy independent for the day when the dollar is no longer the worlds currency.

We will never have to pay it back, nor will our kids. Its a ponzy scheme and when it falls, it will be back to food, amo and gold standard.

It's federal law that state and local governments must run a balanced budget.

proscribed for Thee and not for ME...

Eventually we will print too much and the world will say no more.

Kermit posted this video link a few days ago.
You don't need to watch the entire video if you don't want to. Just pull the bottom timer to 24 minutes and listen to what he says about GDP and the Federal Reserve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq0L5LOqLAU&feature=emb_logo

It moved closer in the dead of night last night. They voted to block the filibuster so it will be moving on to the 1.9 trillion dollar bailout of teacher's unions. We are in big trouble. LLL

we been in big trouble mr combine and it is definitely coming to a head

Steven 49er- I think you're wrong there. A good number of states have governmental debt, the highest are the "usual suspects" of big Dem states.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/debt-by-state

Managed decline 3.0 now that Biden is in there.