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A comment on United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P . Parent comment

Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by thematt on Friday August 05, 2011 @09:01PM (#2852483)
That's because Japanese debt (up to this point) has been primarily financed by its own citizens, life insurance and pension funds. These are more likely to accept sub-AAA rated bonds and support their own government than external investors are.
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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by augustflanagan on Friday August 05, 2011 @09:20PM (#2852553)
Isn't most of the US debt also financed by its own citizens?
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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by cma on Friday August 05, 2011 @09:40PM (#2852590)
Yes, about 70% of it.
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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by joezydeco on Friday August 05, 2011 @09:53PM (#2852627)
Really?

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Graphic/2011/07/31/...

[EDIT] Sorry, read the original statement wrong. I was thinking the parent said 70% was held foreign, not vice-versa.

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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by nknight on Friday August 05, 2011 @10:07PM (#2852681)
Yes, really. Did you actually add the numbers up? The non-foreign components are nearly 70%.
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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by daemonize on Friday August 05, 2011 @09:18PM (#2852544)
Japan has no defense investment. 'nuff said.
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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by angus77 on Friday August 05, 2011 @10:48PM (#2852786)
Japan spends 3% of its annual budget on defense.
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Re:United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P by nerfhammer on Friday August 05, 2011 @10:00PM (#2852655)
Yet they still have a debt-to-GDP ratio of 225%
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