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US NATIONAL DEBT SPIKED BY $1.3 TRILLION IN 12 MONTHS, TO $23 TN. BUT WHO BOUGHT THIS PILE OF TREASURY SECURITIES? By Wolf Richter

THE FED OPENED THE VAULT IN SEPTEMBER. BUT OTHERS BOUGHT TOO.

The US Gross National Debt has jumped by $1.28 trillion as of today, compared to 12 months ago, to $23.04 trillion. And these are the good times. The economy is rocking and rolling, we’re told. How will this debt balloon during the next economic downturn? Yes, that was a rhetorical question. It’s better to not even think about it. And no one is thinking about it:

BUT WHO THE HECK IS BUYING ALL THIS DEBT?

Every dollar of this debt exists in form of Treasury securities that someone must have bought and must own. In terms of foreign holders, we got some answers in the Treasury Department’s TIC data today, which shows how much of this debt was held, bought, or dumped by foreign investors through the end of September. And we can glue the other pieces together from the Fed’s balance sheet and from the Treasury Department’s disclosures.

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