Foreign holdings of US debt rose to $5.66 trillion

AP ^ | Apr 15, 9:33 AM EDT | By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Foreign demand for U.S. Treasury securities rose to a record level in February, indicating that international investors remain confident in U.S. debt despite budget wrangling in Washington.

The Treasury Department said Monday that foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities increased 0.3 percent in February from January to a record $5.66 trillion. It was the 14th straight monthly increase.

[RobertClark]

The obvious is missing: Domestic holdings of US debt surge to more than $10 trillion. The extent of the Fed's direct monetization is mind boggling - we are getting to the point that the bond issues are being during POMO from the PD's in as little as 72 hours. Are they that tight in cash reserves?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-03/80-todays-pomo-bond-auctioned-last-thursday

[RHS Jr]

What if we consider the currency swaps with UK and Japan which are used to buy each others sovereign bonds? What about China’s trading our bonds for gold; that would surely make the true net number a negative. Anybody holding our bonds will soon see their value crash faster than gold but they won’t bounce like a dead cat or gold will.