The money the US government owes to foreign entities rose to a record $5.2923 trillion in June, according to data released by the US Treasury Wednesday afternoon.

In May, the US Treasury had owed $5.2581 trillion to foreign entities. On net, in June, the US government borrowed an additional $34.2 billion from foreign entities in order to fund US government operations.

The US government’s indebtedness to foreign interests has grown by 72.3 percent during President Obama’s term in office. In January 2009, when Obama was inaugurated, the US government owed $3.0717 trillion to foreign entities, according to the Treasury Department. That has increased by $2.2206 trillion -- or 72.3 percent -- to the record $5.2923 trillion reported for yesterday.

Entities in the People’s Republic of China remain the largest holders of US government debt. Entities in Japan, however, are on track to eclipse the Chinese as the top holders of US government debt.

In June, the Chinese held $1.1643 trillion in US government debt, up slightly from the $1.1640 trillion in US government debt the Chinese held in May. However, Chinese ownership of US government debt hit an historical peaked of $1.3149 trillion in July 2011 and has been on a generally downward trend since then.

Entities in Japan, by contrast, have been consistently increasing their ownership of US government debt. In June, the Japanese owned $1.1193 trillion in US debt. In May, they owned $1.1089 trillion in US debt. A year ago, in June 2011, the Japanese owned only $881.5 in US government debt.

Although the Chinese maintained their place as the top foreign owners of US debt in June, they are not the top owners of US debt in the world. That distinction belongs to the US Federal Reserve, which according to its July monthly report, owned $1.667 trillion in US government debt in June.

As of the end of June, the total debt of the federal government was $15,856,367,214,324.44. However, of that debt, $4,812,182,369,712.78 was money the federal government owed to itself (i.e. money the Treasury had borrowed from federal trust funds such as the Social Security Trust Fund, etc.). The Treasury calls this type of debt “intragovernmental” debt. The remaining $11,044,184,844,611.66 the federal government owed as of the end of June was debt held by the “public.” This is debt in the form of Treasury securities the government is obligated to pay off in cash.

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Editor's Note: "We tried their plan...We tried our plan and it worked." -- Pres. Obama, July 23, 2012...Yeah, it worked if bringing the country to a level of unrepayable debt was the goal.


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