to your HTML Add class="sortable" to any table you'd like to make sortable Click on the headers to sort Thanks to many, many people for contributions and suggestions. Licenced as X11: http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/licence.html This basically means: do what you want with it. */ var stIsIE = /*@cc_on!@*/false; sorttable = { init: function() { // quit if this function has already been called if (arguments.callee.done) return; // flag this function so we don't do the same thing twice arguments.callee.done = true; // kill the timer if (_timer) clearInterval(_timer); if (!document.createElement || !document.getElementsByTagName) return; sorttable.DATE_RE = /^(\d\d?)[\/\.-](\d\d?)[\/\.-]((\d\d)?\d\d)$/; forEach(document.getElementsByTagName('table'), function(table) { if (table.className.search(/\bsortable\b/) != -1) { sorttable.makeSortable(table); } }); }, makeSortable: function(table) { if (table.getElementsByTagName('thead').length == 0) { // table doesn't have a tHead. Since it should have, create one and // put the first table row in it. the = document.createElement('thead'); the.appendChild(table.rows[0]); table.insertBefore(the,table.firstChild); } // Safari doesn't support table.tHead, sigh if (table.tHead == null) table.tHead = table.getElementsByTagName('thead')[0]; if (table.tHead.rows.length != 1) return; // can't cope with two header rows // Sorttable v1 put rows with a class of "sortbottom" at the bottom (as // "total" rows, for example). This is B&R, since what you're supposed // to do is put them in a tfoot. So, if there are sortbottom rows, // for backwards compatibility, move them to tfoot (creating it if needed). sortbottomrows = []; for (var i=0; i
Since we keep getting asked about an update of our chart showing the relative shares of U.S. debt owned by foreign powers, here's the picture as of 31 May 2011, the most recent period of time for which the U.S. Treasury has made the foreign ownership data available at this writing:
One thing to be aware of in considering this chart is the extent to which China uses financial institutions based in the United Kingdom as intermediaries in acquiring U.S. government-issued debt. With the U.K.'s share of the U.S. national debt having increased from 1.4% as of October 2010's revised data to the 2.4% shown above, it's very likely that a good portion of this apparent increase, if not all of it, is in fact owned by China.
Another question we are frequently asked is how much of the U.S. national debt is owned by the U.S. Federal Reserve. In July 2011, the Fed's report on its credit and liquidity programs and its balance sheet indicates that as of 25 May 2011, the combined total of U.S. Treasury securities and Federal Agency debt securities owned by the U.S.' central bank system totaled $1,638 billion, which represents approximately 11.4% of the total U.S. public debt outstanding.
For comparison, we previously estimated that the Fed only held 7.1% of the total U.S. national debt back in October 2010. With that massive increase in the percentage share of the U.S. national debt owned by the Fed that we observe through May 2011, we recognize that the supposedly independent U.S. Federal Reserve System, whose leaders are appointed by the U.S. President and approved by the U.S. Congress, has become the dominant lender to the U.S. government.
In fact, from 30 October 2010 to 31 May 2011, the total public debt outstanding for the U.S. government increased by $783 billion, from $13,562 billion to $14,345 billion. To have risen from owning 7.1% of the U.S. national debt in October 2010 to 11.4% in May 2011, the U.S. Federal Reserve would have had to provide over 85% of all the money borrowed by the U.S. federal government during that seven month period of time.
U.S. Treasury Department. Monthly Statement of the Public Debt of the United States, September 30, 2010. Table III - Detail of Treasury Securities Outstanding, May 31, 2011.
U.S. Treasury Department. Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities. (At end of May 2011). Accessed 3 August 2011.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Monthly Report on Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet, July 2011. Table 1. Assets, Liabilities, and Capital of the Federal Reserve System.
Thanks to a sharp-eyed reader, we've changed "$1,638 trillion" to "$1,638 billion" above ("billion" is shown in boldface type). Although really, $1,638 billion is $1.638 trillion, so it's really an error of punctuation!
Labels: national debt
Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:
ironman at politicalcalculations
Thanks in advance!
Closing values for previous trading day.
This site is primarily powered by:
The tools on this site are built using JavaScript. If you would like to learn more, one of the best free resources on the web is available at W3Schools.com.