Who owns U.S. government debt?

The Biggest Holders of US Government Debt

Some of you may find this slide show interesting. It doesn't really tell the whole story, and I don't like the way that they commingle different classes of debt holders - but it is still somewhat illustrative.

One note - of the largest portion they list, only around a half trillion dollars of that is in Federal Reserve Holdings (which are regarded as 'publicly held' in most contexts). Most of the rest of that portion is held by Social Security, Medicare, and various federal government retirement funds.
 
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