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Comment by epolanski

6 hours ago

> the Fed could buy it up and pay interest to itself.

With what money..?

You're asking where the Fed gets money?

  • They have the option of simply putting it on their books, but that is the very last option.

    They would rather borrow it. Sometimes they borrow it from themselves at artificially low rates, which is still better than simply not treating it as a debt at all.

    Their preferred option is to auction off bonds. Though just at the moment rates on those bonds are extremely high, because reasons.

    • You're confusing the federal reserve with the treasury.

      Two completely different and orthogonal institutions.

      Also, rates are not high, they are historically well below the 30 years average.