Who owns US debt

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. The problem with that scenario is they have to have buyers

The bond market is an "Over-The-Counter" market, not an exchange like the NYSE is, and as such there are no "Market Makers". No one is obligated to purchase any bonds put up for sale, and the US Treasury is under no obligation to redeem bonds before their maturity date.

Many people think holders of Treasuries can "Call in their debt" (I know you did not say that) but it just doesn't work that way.

There has to be willing buyers at the price the holder wants to sell. If there aren't, the seller will likely sell at a huge loss.

The bond market is sort of self correcting, in that there will be a point that the yield on a particular series offered for sale becomes so appealing that someone will buy them. The problem with that, is yield is only realized at maturity, not during the period the bonds are held. Buying ten year paper for instance with 8.5 years left to maturity is a long time to realize your gains.

However, if enough of the European Central Banks and the rest of the world all of the sudden started offering US Debt paper for sale all at once, the price of the entire spectrum of Treasuries would plummet and yields would rise, which did happen over the last few days to a small degree with the moves Japanese banks initiated.

Foreign holders certainly can have a dramatic effect on the price and yield of US Treasuries, but being able to actually sell them? That's a different story entirely.