To whom? When did we start keeping track? What does it practically mean as I image it will never be paid back?
In: Economics
It means there are government bonds with total amount of $31 Trillion.
>To whom?
To anyone who owns government bonds. Other parts of the government like Social Security, individual people, companies,…
About 7T is owned by the federal government itself. By different departments.
About 24.5T is owned by the public. Which includes State and local governments, pension funds, banks, trusts, estates, other businesses and investors. Most of those are Americans.
Part of this is also owned by Foreign Governments and investors. US bonds are very save way of storing money and they are pretty liquid.
>When did we start keeping track?
When the government was funded.
>What does it practically mean as I image it will never be paid back?
It’s being paid back all the time. It’s not one big lump sump debt. It’s a lot of smaller debts each of which are for specific length of time.
US federal government pays them back as they come due and borrows new money.
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