Are we borrowing more today from foreign sources to finance our economy?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Poll question: Are we borrowing more today from foreign sources to finance our economy?

Everyone knows the deficit has been burgeoning lately. And everyone knows that foreign money is a chief buyer of our bonds.


But are we borrowing more today from foreign sources as a national economy than we were a few years ago?

(my apologies to the person who answered before I corrected the mis-stated poll)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. *** Answer to OP ***

The reason the government has had to spend all this money lately is because the economy collapsed.

The government tries to pick up the slack created when the private sector pulls back.

The private sector is borrowing a lot less money lately and the government doesn't fill in the whole gap.

Net borrowing by the US as a financial entity is down.

Foreign money is a major funder of things like corporate bonds, packaged private debt, etc..

Our nation's net indebtedness to foreign interests is actually down over the last few years.

The confusion arises from the prevalent RW mind-set of thinking of the government as somehow alien from the nation.