Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: The "Who Owns the National Debt" Pie Chart
From The Skeptical Optimist:
"The chart below is an update, using the latest estimates from the Treasury. (To make it easier to dispel the popular-but-false rumors about China’s share of our federal debt, I added some percentages in the bigger slices. To end the suspense, the Chinese own 4% of it.)
"I assume this chart is mostly self-explanatory. Seems to me that we have a diverse and inclusive array of Treasury-security owners spanning the globe, but concentrated in the USA. Click to enlarge.
"Here are clickable links to the data sources:
• Estimated foreign debt holdings
• Page to lookup total debt and intragov. debt
• Fed (“US Monetary Authority”) share of debt"
"The chart below is an update, using the latest estimates from the Treasury. (To make it easier to dispel the popular-but-false rumors about China’s share of our federal debt, I added some percentages in the bigger slices. To end the suspense, the Chinese own 4% of it.)
"I assume this chart is mostly self-explanatory. Seems to me that we have a diverse and inclusive array of Treasury-security owners spanning the globe, but concentrated in the USA. Click to enlarge.
"Here are clickable links to the data sources:
• Estimated foreign debt holdings
• Page to lookup total debt and intragov. debt
• Fed (“US Monetary Authority”) share of debt"
Labels: national debt, statistics, U.S.Treasury
posted by John Gabree at 4/17/2007
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