The vast majority of U.S. federal debt is now held by the richest households and largest companies, raising concerns about inequality and power

The financial crisis has seen an explosion in government debt levels, and there is now increasing concern about both its sustainability and ownership by foreign investors. Sandy Hager takes a close look at an often overlooked aspect in current debates – the pattern of federal debt ownership by domestic stakeholders within the U.S. He argues that past decades have seen an unprecedented concentration of federal debt in the hands of the richest one percent of households and the largest corporations. These elite interests, he writes, have little interest in reducing debt levels, and their frequent calls for debt reduction are in fact a mask for their agenda of cutting social programs.