[1010RD]

Perhaps their is a counterfactual you've not considered? They're so dependent on America's economy keeping them in power that it's worth helping the game along, at least until the music stops.

Have you listened to this?:

It's really horrendous because the true debts of the country total about $205 trillion. The official debt that's being reported is only about $12 trillion--it's in the hands of the public, the debt in the hands of the public. So we're missing the vast majority of the obligations. And this $205 trillion 'fiscal gap', which is what economists refer to this as, which is all the liabilities to paying my mom's Social Security benefits, your grandmother's Social Security benefits, etc., all the Medicare, Medicaid, other spending obligations--defense spending, paying for the President's lunch--those are all obligations. They are going to have to be paid. And then if we net out all the future taxes that are going to be coming in as projected, in both cases by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), when you see in present value, the value in the present of this net obligation being $205 trillion. So we are in terrible shape. Our GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the national output that we produce, is about $17 trillion--we are talking about $205 trillion, which is many times a single year's GDP. We would have to raise taxes by close to 60% immediately and permanently, every single Federal tax, to come up with $205 trillion in present value. So the country really is bankrupt and nobody sees it because of the bookkeeping.

[ckilmer]

It’s really horrendous because the true debts of the country total about $205 trillion.
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well my understanding is as imperfect as the next persons. But you have to figure that when the biggest vampire mercenary in the world George Soros has confidence in the US economy but is pessimistic about China...then what the hey—chinese investments in US bonds make more sense.
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George Soros On The World’s Shifting Challenges
In contrast to Europe, the United States is emerging as the developed world’s strongest economy. Shale energy has given the US an important competitive advantage in manufacturing in general and in petrochemicals in particular. The banking and household sectors have made some progress in deleveraging. Quantitative easing has boosted asset values. And the housing market has improved, with construction lowering unemployment. The fiscal drag exerted by sequestration is also about to expire.

The major uncertainty facing the world today is not the euro but the future direction of China. The growth model responsible for its rapid rise has run out of steam.

That model depended on financial repression of the household sector, in order to drive the growth of exports and investments. As a result, the household sector has now shrunk to 35% of GDP, and its forced savings are no longer sufficient to finance the current growth model. This has led to an exponential rise in the use of various forms of debt financing.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-02/george-soros-worlds-shifting-challenges