It seems there may not be enough creditors to absorb U.S. debt. When Treasury auctions have had weak attendance in the past, interest rates have ultimately been determined by the marketplace, rather than manipulation by the Fed (like in the 70s and early 90s). If interest rates go up it will be all over for any already absurd perception that the U.S. will be able to pay, particularly the interest, our debt.
http://treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htmSo it would seem that Belgium is being used as proxy to consume our debt, in order to keep our rates artificially low (which based on the prospects of the unlikelihood of repayment should be priced at banana republic levels). How else could Belgium be spending nearly it's whole GDP on U.S. Treasuries?
Search - belgian U.S. debt buying
http://www.bing.com/search?q=belgian+U.S.+debt+buying&qs=n&form=QBRE&pq=belgian+u.s.+debt+buying&sc=0-37&sp=-1&sk=&cvid=3c05219163704e89a593bf76b9b3629bExample:
"Who Is The New Secret Buyer Of U.S. Debt?
On the surface, the economic atmosphere of the U.S. has appeared rather calm and uneventful. Stocks are up, employment isn’t great but jobs aren’t collapsing into the void (at least not openly), and the U.S. dollar seems to be going strong. Peel away the thin veneer, however, and a different financial horror show is revealed.
U.S. stocks have enjoyed unprecedented crash protection due to a steady infusion of fiat money from the Federal Reserve known as quantitative easing. With the advent of the “taperâ€, QE is now swiftly coming to a close (as is evident in the overall reduction in treasury market purchases), and is slated to end by this fall, if not sooner.
Employment has been boosted only in statistical presentation, and not in reality. The Labor Department’s creative accounting of job numbers omits numerous factors, the most important being the issue of long term unemployed. Millions of people who have been jobless for so long they no longer qualify for benefits are being removed from the rolls. This quiet catastrophe has the side bonus of making it appear as though unemployment is going down."
"While foreign investment in the U.S. has sharply declined since March, Belgium has quickly become the third largest buyer of Treasury bonds, just behind China and Japan, purchasing more than $200 billion in securities in the past five months, adding to a total stash of around $340 billion. This development is rather bewildering, primarily because Belgium’s GDP as of 2012 was a miniscule $483 billion, meaning, Belgium has spent nearly the entirety of its yearly GDP on our debt.
Clearly, this is impossible, and someone, somewhere, is using Belgium as a proxy in order to prop up the U.S. But who?
Recently, a company based in Belgium called Euroclear has come forward claiming to be the culprit behind the massive purchases of American debt. Euroclear, though, is not a direct buyer. Instead, the bank is a facilitator, using what it calls a “collateral highway†to allow central banks and international banks to move vast amounts of securities around the world faster than ever before."
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/2145-who-is-the-new-secret-buyer-of-us-debtAnother
"The Fed dominates the US Treasury market
Last week the Federal Reserve published new data regarding the foreign holdings of US Treasuries. These numbers show Belgium was the largest buyer of US Treasury debt in November last year with an increase in holdings of $20.3 billion. China came in second with a purchase of $12.2 billion of US debt and Japan was the third largest buyer with a $12 billion increase in US government bond holdings. The largest seller was Russia, decreasing it’s US Treasury holdings by $10 billion.
The following charts shows the net changes in bond holdings for the largest foreign holders of US debt."
http://www.silverdoctors.com/the-fed-dominates-the-us-treasury-market/http://marketupdate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/which-countries-bought-treasuries-nov13.pnghttp://marketupdate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/which-countries-bought-treasuries-2013.pnghttp://marketupdate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/which-countries-bought-treasuries-2009.png
