# Could Buffet, Gates top 100 richest save the economy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-buffet-gates-top-100-richest-save-the-economy/427192>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 20, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-buffet-gates-top-100-richest-save-the-economy/427192 "2007-11-20T16:44:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-buffet-gates-top-100-richest-save-the-economy/427192/21 "2007-11-22T03:18:19Z")

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[QUOTE=Gatopescado]  
Don’t worry your pretty little head. The economy is fine and will take care of itself. Switch off the TV and go outside.  
[/QUOTE]

Actually it doesn’t bother me all that much, people have survived worse. It just made me wonder if the richest people could reverse the current trend.

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-buffet-gates-top-100-richest-save-the-economy/427192/22 "2007-11-22T03:31:12Z")

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[QUOTE=RyJae]  
But if the dollar goes to far down wouldn’t other countries stop using it, in turn causing the “wheelbarrow full of dollars” for a loaf of bread thing? Couldn’t China and other nations that buy are debt think its a good time to get out of it?  
[/QUOTE]

Whatever else is being said, this is a good time to remind everyone that there isn’t actually that much U.S. debt being held in foreign hands. Even if China dumped every U.S. dollar it had, it would be a small fraction of the total supply of U.S. dollars.

> [@](#):
>
> I know it’s a world economy but the Euro and Yen seem to be holding there own don’t they?

This is also as good a time as any to point out that the yen is worth a miniscule fraction of the dollar and always has been, but nobody ever thought the Japanese economy was in trouble.

A currency going up or down ten percent causes a lot of headlines but simply isn’t a portent of catastrophe.

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**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-buffet-gates-top-100-richest-save-the-economy/427192/23 "2007-11-22T11:33:49Z")

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[QUOTE=RickJay]  
Whatever else is being said, this is a good time to remind everyone that there isn’t actually that much U.S. debt being held in foreign hands.  
[/QUOTE]

Note: the link below is to a pdf file.

Foreigners own 44% of all U.S. Treasuries, according to the [Congressional Budget Office](http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/82xx/doc8264/06-26-ForeignHoldings.pdf), which I would call a rather substantial holding. The CBO doesn’t give the percentage of agency and GSE\* securities owned by foreigners, but does note that those holdings more than doubled between 2001 and 2006.

\*Federal Home Loan Bank, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc.

[QUOTE=RickJay]  
but nobody ever thought the Japanese economy was in trouble.  
[/QUOTE]

I’m not certain what defines “trouble,” but as of 2006 Japan had experienced seven straight years of falling prices that led to two recessions along the way.

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