4 ms·
Because they are the ones who lent the US the money. China is the #2 holder of US treasury bonds and currently own about 1T worth. (4% of the US national debt)
by slacktide 5y ago
Because they are the ones who lent the US the money. China is the #2 holder of US treasury bonds and currently own about 1T worth. (4% of the US national debt) Japan is the #1 holder at 1.2T. Source: https://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt https://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt
- SubiculumCode 5y agoNo one "lent" us money. It's a fiat currency with a self-imposed limit on new money creation.
- lmilcin 5y ago> No one "lent" us money. Obviously you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. BOND. Issued by US government. Is a promise that US will pay back the price of the bond at some predetermined future date and in the meantime it will also be paying interest in regular installments. Others (including other countries) buy US bonds, which finances US spending. You know, whenever there is this big debate about whether to close US government or not? So it is kinda stupid to say "no one lent us money", because, you know, they did.
- SubiculumCode 5y agoWow, you are a dick.
- lmilcin 5y agoAt least I am competent dick. I work with financial instruments and risk for largest banks in the world. I am competent to point out you have no idea when you say nobody lends US money because I am calculating risk of that debt as my day job. I am not allowed tell you how much but surprisingly large portion of it.
- SubiculumCode 5y agoSee and respond to my other post. It seems reasonable to assume that most of the money that was lent to us via the BOND/Treasury ultimately came from fiat money creation via the banks through the fractional reserve system.
- dang 5y agoPlease do not respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. It only makes things worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- SubiculumCode 5y agoYou're right dang, sorry. I let my emotion get to me on that one.
- SubiculumCode 5y agoBut as a fuller reply to your overly condescending post is that a)yes the BOND procedure is borrowing, but b)the majority of new money is created through the fractional reserve system, which requires banks to hold 10% in reserve when creating loans. When banks give out new loans they are in fact creating almost 10 times as much new money, well exceeding the whole bond mechanism. Now I admit that this is not my field, but it certainly seems that if the majority of new money that is created is through the fractional reserve system, i.e. by fiat, then the majority of the money that is spent buying new BONDS is from fiat-produced money.
- dang 5y agoPosting like this to HN will get you banned, regardless of how competent you are or feel you are. Please read the rules and stick to them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.