Who Owns U.S. Debt? You & Me, Mostly…

Here's a chart compiled by the folks at Political Calculations that plots out to whom the federal debt is owed. It's a bit outdated, as it's based on figures from the end of last fiscal year. But the percentages are surely about the same even though the current total debt has hit the $14.3 trillion or so level.

All told, it's looking like 70 percent of the debt is held by domestic suckers and by elements of our trusted and trustworthy government.

I don't know that that is a comforting thought. It might be if the cumulative total were much, much smaller. As it stands, it's all just appalling on any number of levels.

Earlier today, Veronique de Rugy explained on C-SPAN why we won't default on the debt and elsewhere she's discussed how the debt ceiling is not the fiscal tripwire Tim Geithner and others say it is. Though de Rugy and others point out that at some point—and sooner rather than later—the borrowing has got to stop. And it will, either by the government getting its act together or investors demanding too high a premium.