Item — HN Reader

> finance government spending without the market buying bonds

According to https://www.thebalance.com/who-owns-the-u-s-national-debt-33...:

“The public holds over $22 trillion of the national debt. 3 Foreign governments hold a large portion of the public debt, while the rest is owned by U.S. banks and investors, the Federal Reserve, state and local governments, mutual funds, pensions funds, insurance companies, and holders of savings bonds.”

2 comments

> The public holds over $22 trillion of the national debt.

This is amazing. A very few seem to realise that it says the public buys and holds a promise on a future productive capacity of that same public. It's as if I paid another person for the privilege of promising myself to behave and work for that person overtime in the future.

Ok, but the fed bought bonds on the market and artificially drove down interest rates doing so. And also financed part of government debt.

I don’t see how the holdings of it matter, that’s completely different to the bonds being sold on the open market, which the fed was buying