The U.S. total public debt outstanding was $13.79 trillion as of November 2010, as reported by TreasuryDirect, a financial services website under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt. This figure represents debt held by the American public as well as the U.S. government.
Public Debt
Of the $13.79 trillion total public debt outstanding, debt held by the U.S. public as of November 2010 totaled $9.21 trillion, according to TreasuryDirect. This includes money owed to other countries, investors, mutual funds, hedge funds and pension funds.
Intragovernmental Holdings
The balance of $4.58 trillion in debt consists of intragovernmental holdings. These are government securities that are issued by one government agency and held by another. In other words, it is money that the government essentially owes to itself -- for example, when it borrows money from the Social Security fund and promises to repay it later.
Credit Card Debt
The average credit card debt per household was $15,788 as of 2010. American consumers held 609.8 million credit cards, with each consumer holding an average of 3.5 cards, according to
"The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice" conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in January 2010.
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