Ok, I didn't get that you were excluding countries like Argentina and Brazil. When people talk about "smaller" economies in the US, they usually mean anything significantly smaller than Russia.

Undisciplined

I agree but you used as an example USA bonds and that's what I was saying: the USA use their own people to pay for such massive expenses, not the little 3rd world economies which have the level of just one Argentinian province and we still are underdeveloped and dwarfed against Brazil, not even thinking about comparing to the USA.

didiplaywell

econ

Tether's Circle of Death

With thinking on the margins, I'm saying that even relatively small holdings help support a more manageable financing cost for US debt. Over time that adds up and enables more spending. It's not about comparing the impacts of huge aggregates.