At the close of business on Aug. 31 — for the first time in the history of the country — the publicly held debt of the federal government topped $10 trillion, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department at 4:00 p.m. yesterday.
Also, according to the most recent reports available from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, approximately $6.1 trillion of that debt — or about 61 percent of it — is owned by foreign interests (led by the Chinese and the Japanese) and by the Federal Reserve.
At the close of business on Aug. 30, as reported by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt, the federal government’s debt held by the public equaled $9,990,126,772,846.86. By the close of business on Aug. 31, it was $10,024,253,354,407.07.
