Federal Reserve Economic Data

As long as a government runs deficits, it has to find buyers for its bonds. In the years after the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve was a willing buyer of U.S. Treasury bonds. Since 2014, though, the Fed has put its buying spree on hold. So, somebody else must be taking up the slack. But who? The graph above addresses this question. Contrary to some reports, foreigners are not soaking up federal government debt. It seems to be domestic private investors, given that their holdings have continued increasing, while foreigners’ holdings have not. In terms of shares, as shown in the graph below, this becomes even clearer. It looks like the ownership of federal debt is actually shifting away from foreign investors toward domestic investors. (Take a look back at this FRED Blog post from May 2014.)

How these graphs were created: For the first, search for “federal debt held,” check the three series, and click on “Add to Graph.” For the second, start with the first: From the “Edit Graph” menu, open the panel for the line with the debt held by private investors, add to it the series with foreign debt holders, apply formula a-b, and restrict the dates to the past ten years. Finally, from the “Format Graph” tab, select graph type “Area” with stacking “Percent.”

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann.

Yes. You’re seeing it right: FRED now features pie charts! This chart shows who holds federal debt, which excludes federal debt held within the federal government itself but includes debt held by local and state governments and public entities. Close to half is held by foreign investors, about a fifth by the Federal Reserve, and the rest by domestic investors. Unfortunately, the Treasury doesn’t specifically provide the amount of debt held by private domestic investors alone, so that has to be calculated, as shown here.

How this graph was created: Choose the series “Federal Debt Held by Federal Reserve Banks” and “Federal Debt Held by Foreign & International Investors.” Now, to create the series that shows only private domestic holders of federal debt, select “Federal Debt Held by Private Investors” and then use “Add data series, modify existing series” to include “Federal Debt Held by Foreign & International Investors.” Apply the data transformation a-b and then select graph type “pie,” which will default to the last observation.

Also: To see how the debt holdings have evolved, click on “customize” below the graph and change the graph settings to graph type “line,” “area” or “bar,” and then expand the date range. Set stacking to “percent” to see how the relative shares have evolved.

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann