Reply #8: Maybe there's some confusion about... [View All]

[punpirate]

... total debt of all kinds, investments and foreign-held securities.

This is as of Nov., 2003:



China is still not the majority part of the current account deficit, nor is Saudi Arabia. The situation's gotten worse in the year and a half since this distribution, but it would not substantively change the percentages shown. Most of those securities would be US debt in the form of Treasury bonds.

As well, the Saudis have been spending more than they take in throughout much of the `80s and `90s, so they have been quietly dumping holdings. There was some pressure from James Baker recently for them to buy some US government debt, but it was not a dramatic amount.

But, admittedly, I do wish I had a current debt distribution graph to solve this disagreement on relative shares.

Cheers.