1

On https://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/rss, we have three numbers:

Debt Held by the Public: $14,387,199,090,397.24
Intragovernmental Holdings: $5,552,709,700,473.24
Total Public Debt Outstanding: $19,939,908,790,870.48

It seems the latter number is often considered the U.S. national debt. What is the difference between the Debt Held by the Public and the Total Public Debt Outstanding?

Albert Albala
  • 11
  • 1

1 Answers1

1

The difference are the intragovernmental holdings, which consist of treasuries that are owned by government agencies and are thus not counted as government debt - it's a debt that the government owes to itself.

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intragovernmental_holdings):

In the United States, intragovernmental holdings are primarily composed of the Medicare Trust Fund, the Social Security Trust Fund, and Federal Financing Bank securities. A small amount of marketable securities are held by government accounts.

Tobias
  • 970
  • 6
  • 18