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> From where did you get $20 trillion? The data I see show $3.5 trillion for the United States versus $5.4 trillion for China https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar

> From where did you get $20 trillion? The data I see show $3.5 trillion for the United States versus $5.4 trillion for China https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-25/with-21-trillion-china-s-savers-are-set-to-change-the-world https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-25/with-21-t... http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/with-28-trillion-in-savings-chinese-are-set-to-change-the-world-20150625-ghy4x1.html http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/with-28-trillion-in-sav... > If the U.S. Treasury defaults, one can sue. If China defaults...you're just screwed. which government got recently shutdown for its debt problems?

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
The Sydney Morning Herald article you cite [1] measures “deposits”. The comparable figure in the United States is $12 trillion [2]. The comparison is misleading, however, since few U.S. institutions, financial or non-financial, “save” in deposit accounts. (This is true in a China, too.) All this comes down to the murky definition of “savings,” which are in the end largely irrelevant to national credit concerns since “credit” is trying to quality their probability of seizure (through default, expropriation or other means). [1] http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/with-28-trillion-in-savings-chinese-are-set-to-change-the-world-20150625-ghy4x1.html http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/with-28-trillion-in-sav... [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DPSACBW027SBOG https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DPSACBW027SBOG