Here's Who We Owe That $17 Billion Of Government Debt To

Josh Brown of Ritholtz Wealth Management recently tweeted the chart below, which was created by National Public Radio. (See the original and some additional notes here.)

The chart shows who holds the $16.8 billion of U.S. federal debt that is currently outstanding.

In other words, the chart shows who we owe all that money to:

Some observations:

• We owe most of the money to ourselves.
• We owe a big chunk of the money - about $6 trillion - to the Federal government. So if there ever were a default (hopefully there won't be) the government would also be stiffing itself.
• We owe about $5 trillion to other countries, including China.
• The total debt to China is only $1.3 trillion. So we're not in hock to China as much as some people think we are.
• Yes, it's a boatload of debt. But the experience of Japan, the U.S. after World War 2, and other countries suggest that its a manageable amount, as long as we eventually get our long-term entitlement spending under control.