The United States, the richest country in the world, is also the largest debtor in the world.
According to the latest figures, privately owned national debt- money borrowed by the US government from foreign and international investors -- stood at $3.5 trillion as of March 31, of which foreigners owned $1.71 trillion.
Such heavy debt to foreigners, according to Allan Sloan, a Washington Post columnist "makes us vulnerable. One day the bill will come in. It always does. Remember the old law: Whose bread I eat, his song I sing. Tune up your vocal cords, fans. I don't know what we will have to sing to satisfy our foreign creditors if the day of reckoning arrives while we are still hooked on their loans. But it sure won't be 'America the Beautiful."
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