Interessant nettside;
https://www.thebalance.com
The U.S. debt is the sum of all outstanding debt owed by the federal government. It exceeded $21 trillion* on March 15, 2018.
* Trillion på engelsk tilsvarer billion på norsk, 1 billion = 1000 milliarder.
The current Debt to the Penny shows the current total public debt outstanding. This figure changes everyday.
The debt clock in New York also tracks it.
Two-thirds is debt held by the public. The government owes this to buyers of U.S. Treasury bills, notes, and bonds.
That includes individuals, companies, and foreign governments.
The remaining third is intragovernmental debt. The Treasury owes this to its various departments who hold Government Account
securities. Social Security and other trust funds are the biggest owners. They have been running surpluses for years.
The federal government uses these surpluses to pay for other departments.
These securities will come due as baby boomers retire over the next two decades.
Since Social Security and trust funds are the largest owners, the answer as to who owns the U.S. debt the most would be:
everyone’s retirement money.
The debt is greater than what America produces in a whole year.
This high debt-to-gross domestic product ratio tells investors that the country might have problems repaying the loans.
That's a new and worrying occurrence for the United States. In 1988, the debt was only half of America's economic output.
Ideally, this money should have been invested to be available when the boomers retire.
Instead, the Fund was "loaned" to the government to finance increased spending.
This interest-free loan helped keep Treasury Bond interest rates low, allowing more debt financing.
But it must be repaid by increased taxes when the boomers do retire.
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The power of the U.S. dollar depends on its use as a global currency.
This itself is backed by the power of America's economy. Here are three reasons behind the power of the dollar.
They explain why no other currency will quickly replace it.
The Dollar Is a Global Currency
After World War II, the world's developed countries created a plan in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
They fixed the rate of exchange for all foreign currencies to the U.S. dollar.
The Bretton Woods agreement promised that the United States would redeem any dollar for its value in gold.
By the early 1970s, countries began demanding gold for their dollars to curb inflation.
Rather than allow investors to deplete Fort Knox of all its gold reserves, President Nixon untied the dollar from gold.
By that time, the dollar had become the world's dominant reserve currency.
(Source: "Strong Dollar, Weak Dollar," The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, June 1998.)
The Dollar Is the New Gold Standard
In essence, the dollar is like the gold standard. Most global contracts, especially those for oil, are denominated in dollars.
Many large economies, such as China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, peg their currency to the dollar.
When the dollar weakens, so do the profits of their exporters. These countries also hold large deposits of U.S. Treasurys.
In theory, they could sell their holdings and cause a dollar collapse. But that's not in their best interest.
The Dollar Has Always Recovered from Prior Declines
The dollar declined during the 1970s, the early 80s and from 1991 to 1993. During these declines,
there were also forecasts of a dollar collapse. Many countries considered removing their currencies' pegs from the dollar.
But there was no real substitute for the dollar as a global currency, so a collapse did not happen.
Selvfølgelig står det ikke i klar tekst at USA ikke vil betale tilbake lånene sine. På samme måte står det heller ikke at det er USAs militærmakt som er med på å støtte dollaren. Men USAs styrke er en viktig del av å gi tillit til valutaen.