Our National Debt...here's something to think about...

FOREIGN DEBT: " Foreign entities own a little more than 53 percent of the U.S. federal debt in publicly traded world markets," ABC News reported last month. In contrast, only "1 percent of all active corporations that filed taxes in 2002" are foreign-owned. While there is nothing inherently wrong with foreigners buying our debt (foreign central banks have kept interest rates low ), a " disorderly situation would occur if foreign money dried up suddenly when the United States still needed it. Then the adjustment in American savings might happen involuntarily. Interest rates would rise sharply, and the dollar could fall abruptly. This could induce a sharp economic contraction, even stagflation." If we continue to live at the mercy of the main financiers of our debt - whether it's Japan, China, the United Kingdom, or "Caribbean Banking Centers" -- we could find ourselves on " on increasingly thin ice ."