NEW $5 BILL MAKES DEBUT

The redesigned $5 bill will begin circulating today. The bill is designed to foil counterfeiters who have taken to bleaching the $5 bill to remove the ink and then printing a $100 bill on top of it. One prominent feature of the new $5 bill is the use of purple ink. For more info on the redesigned bill visit the Department of the Treasury's page that lists all of the security features.

SENATOR CLINTON EXPRESSES CONCERN ABOUT FOREIGN-OWNED U.S. DEBT

Senator Hillary Clinton expressed concern about the "economic vulnerabilities" posed by foreign interests owning large amounts of U.S. debt. On the Senate floor, and in letters to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Senator Clinton said that President Bush's economic policies have contributed to an "erosion of U.S. economic sovereignty" and added that it is "undeniable that the exponential growth of foreign debt in the last six years has undermined our economic standing."

From The Wall Street Journal:

Currently, the U.S. imports more goods than it exports from places like China, resulting in a trade deficit, and it borrows heavily from abroad to finance its domestic investment. Foreign interests own about $2.2 trillion of U.S. Treasury securities -- or about 52% of the public debt not held by the U.S. government, compared with about 20% in the early 1990s, during the Clinton administration. The U.S. has come to rely on foreign capital because Americans don't save enough to finance the nation's domestic investment.

...there is broad concern that the growing reliance on foreign investors puts the U.S. at risk, and some say the way to address it is to begin saving money at home by erasing the current $248 billion budget deficit, moving into a surplus and putting money aside to pay for costly obligations like Social Security and Medicare.