What does it mean when a country buys our debt? Ex: Japan has bought 600+ BILLION of our debt.?
354132
It means that one country lent us money, but another country has now taken on responsibility for that debt and will receive payments in the future.\n\ni.e.\nChina lends us $1bn at 10% interest\nNow, if China needs cash quickly and Japan has lots of cash it wants to use, Japan could buy the debt off of China.  It could pay China $1.05 billion so China makes some money on the deal and then could take the payment of $1.1bn from the US so Japan makes money too.
945525
When  you include everything, all our debt, the number is over 50 trillion.  " A billion here and a billion there, soon you are talking about real money."  It is all a colossal shell game perpetrated on the public.  Social Security was supposed to be a fund that contributions went in to, and benefits were to be taken from the interest.  If left alone, there would be more than enough money now to draw from.  Instead, Congress adopted another criminal  practice and started, in the sixties, dumping that money in the general fund to be spent every year on their pet projects, like Vietnam.  Today is  the same with Iraq.  I imagine they call it creative bookkeeping 101.
780600
National debt, well, for substantial countries like the US, is often a good refuge for money when the economy stinks.  If business is generally bad, then people more interested in wealth preservation will bid up government debt because the other investments are perceived to be too risky.\n\nRemember, market capitalization is a pretty bogus store of value (multipy a company's outstanding shares by the most recent price of the shares on a public exchange).  A market crash, supposedly, erases enormous amounts of "value".  The government bonds, meanwhile, have two values: a similar market value, and the face value.  If held to maturity, the investor knows how much he will get (plus interest for the intervening period, assume they aren't those stripped of coupons or are notes, wherein the price discount to the face determines the "yield").  The stocks have per share equity (book value) numbers, but that is if the company is liquidated--which almost never happens and when it does the value is often virtually nothing.  \n\nA large national debt means there is room for many to buy-in to the debt when abandoning the stock market.  But then, a large national debt means that there needs to be a heavier tax burden to pay for it (or at least a maintenance service of it).  Heavy tax burdens can have a dampening effect on the economy and a depressing effect on stocks.
995237
did you know china pays most of the u.s. debt? so technically.. they own us. think about it.
139710
The deficit is money owed by the government to several different places.  Examples are, U.S. citizens, U.S. companies, Japan, China, other goverment agencies that didn't use precious budgets...  Interest is paid on this balance every year.  As the national debt grows so too does the interest paid.  Because the government also makes the money, they could in theory simply print more money and give it to their creditors.  If they did that, the U.S dollar would become weaker compared to other countries money.  Cutting a pie into more slices without making the pie any bigger will mean each slice of pie is smaller.  Same principle applies to monetary policy.\n\nAs the government makes more money, inflation kicks in.  A dollar in 1940 could buy a lot more than it does today.  People that invest in things like banks and the stock market expect to beat inflation and even get more.  For instance inflation runs about 3 percent per year on average.  So on any investment you need to get more than 3 percent return or you will loose purchasing power.  \n\nTo pull it all together.  Government gets to a point that interst owed on national debt is higher than GDP.  This means that we can not make more in a year than we owe. (Not likely to happen but proves a point)  The only way the government can pay its debt is by doubling the amount of money in circulation.  This would cause every dollar to loose 50 % purchasing power.  The only way you could convince me to save my money rather than spend it would be by offering more than 50 % rate of return.  If a bank is offering lets say 55 % interest rates then they too have to make more return on their investment.  The people they loan the money to (home owners through morgages) would have to pay more than 55 % on there home loan.  People would stop borrowing money at such a high rate, demand for houses would fall.  The supply of houses would stay about the same.  Decrease demand holding supply the same would lower the price of homes.  Thus create a market crash
576010
not too sure about that. All I know is that here in alberta, we are debt free. I dont really care about the other provinces
971682
China is selling you all their goods. They own 40 percent of America's debt and interest rates are rising. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger sold out America to the Chinese 35 years ago. Kissinger still has his finger in the Chinese pie, it made him a billionaire. If you think our jobs are in jeopardy now, wait until your grandchildren are speaking in Asian tongues.
697294
Most countries are in debt, The debt we have is because of giving away more than we can afford.  Why do politicians give countries like Russia 998 million dollars when they have more in reserve than we do?? It should be simple to keep from spending more than you have. The question is how to control those who think it is no big thing to go deeper into debt. The service cost of debt is slowly becoming more than we can handle. Stiff actions are needed to cut the debt.  One of the easier methods is to cut foreign aid and decrease our importation of oil. The government should force rationing of Gasoline and limit waste. Although not popular it could help our debt management.
139854
These other answers are wrong. A nation's debt is the accumulation of each year's deficit or surplus. It is money owed by the nation's government, not all its people. The national debt is owed by the nation to its people, its banks, other governments, people in other countries, etc. Thinks of government bonds. When you invest in a government bond you give money to the government in return for the government's promise to pay you back even more money later. So that is an example of the government being in debt to you.
149872
Good answer ybhviper... very astute analysis\n\nI might add there are ways that COULD help.... some conventional, some unconventional...\n\nThere has been some weird talk of a national Lottery... with procedes going directly to debt relief... but then Gambling would have to be embraced by the Fed.... dunno how likely that will be\n\nTax on something other than income, where people readily spend and would not stop spending because of an additional 5% or so tax.... but that makes for a popularity nightmare\n\nCalling on those that do owe us money... or even asking those we have assisted in other ways to wipe out portions of debt we owe them (Japan, China, etc), in exchange for favorable decisions in their favor (Trade wise, treay wise etc)... \n\nBut in all reality, we will never be free of federal debt... the debt helps the economy roll to an extent.... I could see severe effort towards debt reduction.. but I don't know how the Dems and Reps can work together on that, when they are on each others heels about even the smallest things, like stink on a monkey... riders, pork barrel add ons, government as charity relief, government handouts, etc need to be seriously eliminated to bare minimums... I just doubt that with any politician, we will see it
429844
======\n\nIt is an international pact of many countries. \n\nThe principal share comes from USA.\nOther countries from Europe also contribute to it,
756357
Through:\n\nUnpractical Means:\n-our government's current method of paying of older debt with new debt. (treasury bills/bonds/notes)\n\n-inflation, printing of more currency--increasing circulation of dollars\n\nPractical Means:\n-increase exports, decrease imports\n\n-increase/decrease taxes (determined by the Laffer curve)\n\n-decrease government consumption (possibly through military cutbacks as the U.S. outspends all nations of the world combinded in military expenditures), increase national savings
781577
c\n\nIf you go to the site listed below and look at the section entitled "Cost of Debt" you will see the detectability of interest payments begin mentioned.  Since in your question the debt is increased, I believe that "c" is the correct answer.\n\nI hope that this helps.
181153
It does not matter if the debt is 90 Trillion of dollars.\n\nWhat are the Japanese, Germans and Chinese going to do if the United States of America Goverment does not pay them?\n\nInvade the United States of America?
408223
There is nothing wrong with having a national debt. That is a very common misnomer. The national debt is simply the acculation of outstanding savings bonds that are purchased, primarily by us (the American public). You go buy a bond, and the government owes you the money back. It is just a paper transfer, not a sunk cost. A surplus would only mean that these have been paid off. That isn't NECESSARILY the optimal condition.
1058034
It might be current account deficit or a similar term.  There's an article below that dicusses money flows in and out of a country.
277497
The USA is not borrowing from them.  They are buying US bonds.  They are buying because the USA is stable and that protects their investment.