Should Google be big enough to start an economic war with a country

[CK_John]

that owns over half our debt. I don't think so. First they have been caught trying to do the right thing, they should not have put themselves into the situation they are in, in the first place.

I think we need renewal of the anti-trust division and ideas of companies effects on national policy.

When your big enough to start a war or topple governments, your too big.

[lazarus]

1. who owns half our debt?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29880401/The_Biggest_Holders_of_US_Government_Debt

#15 Russia
#14 Depository Institutions
#13 Hong Kong
#12 Brazil
#11 Insurance Companies
#10 Caribbean Banking Centers
#9 Oil Exporters
#8 United Kingdom
#7 Pension Funds
#6 State and Local Governments
#5 Mutual Funds
#4 China (755.4 billion)
#3 Japan
#2 Other Investors/Savings Bonds
#1 Federal Reserve/Intragovernmental Holdings (5.127 trillion)

From the looks of it, by far the biggest holder of our debt is the Fed/intragovernmental holdings, and I don't think Google is taking them on just yet. China has maybe 5% of our debt. Or is China not the holder of debt you were referring to?

[CK_John]

3. So we owe our national debt to ourselves, don't buy it. But I was referring to the

decision of Google to cancel its service in China, that it should not have started to begin with.

[lazarus]

4. China

simply doesn't own enough of our debt to worry about it. Seriously, it's something like 5%.

[CK_John]

5. Enron and now Lehman have show you should not believe all stats.n/t

[lazarus]

6. so the government is lying about this?

http://www.fms.treas.gov/bulletin/index.html

If you insist on believing that China has "half our debt", I can't help you anymore.

[northzax]

8. Oh come on

Yes, we owe the great majority of our debt to ourselves, mostly to Social Security (about 1.5 trillion dollars total) the SSA has been running annual surpluses of over $100b for several decades, all of that is lent to the treasury via T-bills. In comparison, we owe China about 750 billion. Which sounds like a lot, but really isn't, in these terms. The US has a GDP of around $14T. That means we owe roughly 6% of one year's national income to China, amortized over 30 years at ridiculously low interest rates.

On the other hand, China's GDP is only about four point five trillion a year, so we owe them 20% of their annual income. Who does that money mean more to? The side that counts it as six percent, or the side that counts it as twenty? Say you make $100/year. You owe someone $6,000. How worried are you?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

13. +1

[Exultant Democracy]

2. Google is hasn't hit east indian trading company status yet.

[dionysus]

7. sure, why not.

[Umbral]

9. You mean the same Google that colludes with the NSA to spy on US citizens? Who cares? nt

[themaguffin]

10. Are you letting people off the hook who make them the largest search engine by far?

They as big as they are because people mostly use them to search.

Unlike other media, people can simply use one of several search engines if they chose to

[CK_John]

11. They are big because of their ad revenue and use of other peoples work product, not search but

capture.

[themaguffin]

12. it's the same thing. people make their ad revenue by clicking