Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• NATIONAL DEBT
  
  The total value of all outstanding Treasury bills, notes, and bonds that the federal government owes investors is referred to as the national debt. Some of this debt is held by the government itself, in accounts such as the Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, and Highway, Airport and Airway Trust Funds. The rest is held by individual and institutional investors, both domestic and foreign, or by foreign governments. The national debt is not the same as the federal budget deficit, which is any federal spending that exceeds federal income in a fiscal year.
  
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