Kent Conrad: “It is very clear what it means because, as I have indicated, according to their own budget documents, this budget, which…”

“It is very clear what it means because, as I have indicated, according to their own budget documents, this budget, which they have advertised as one that is fiscally responsible, increases the debt each and every year by more than $600 billion. The thing that is quite stunning is here is what has happened to foreign holdings of U.S. debt just since 2001. According to this chart, it has gone up 97 percent. The truth is this chart is a little bit behind the times. Foreign holdings of our debt have gone up more than 100 percent in just 4 years. The result is we owe Japan over $700 billion. We owe China almost $200 billion. We owe the United Kingdom over $170 billion. We even owe the Caribbean banking centers over $100 billion. Who would ever have believed the powerful, mighty United States owes the Caribbean banking centers over $100 billion? Here we are borrowing money from the Caribbean banking centers. Why, we have even borrowed over $65 billion from South Korea. I have never heard of a country building its strength by borrowing from abroad. I have never heard of a great power that made itself mightier by borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from countries all over the world. No, this is not a way to strength. This is a way to weakness. This is a way to dependency on foreign central banks. What happens if all of a sudden they decide they are going to start diversifying out of dollar- denominated securities? Well, we all know what could happen.…”