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> On Apr 19, 2020, at 9:59 AM, John Reimann via Marxism > <[email protected]> wrote: > > From the Washington Post > https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/04/18/record-government-corporate-debt-risk-tipping-point-after-pandemic-passes/ > > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/04/18/record-government-corporate-debt-risk-tipping-point-after-pandemic-passes/> > > The United States is embarking on a rapid-fire experiment in borrowing > without precedent, as the government and corporations take on trillions of > dollars of debt to offset the economic damage from the coronavirus > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?tid=lk_inline_manual_2&itid=lk_inline_manual_2 > > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?tid=lk_inline_manual_2&itid=lk_inline_manual_2>> > pandemic. There’s a fundamental misconception in this piece. US government debt is nothing like debt for the private sector, or at the state or municipal level. Virtually all USG debt is denominated in dollars, and the US is the sole issuer of dollars. The US Government doesn’t have to “earn” US dollars in order to pay off its dollar-denominated debts, and its debt is for all practical purposes “owed” to itself: it “borrows” from itself when it expands the money supply. If people think the US government needs to “raise” dollars in order to meet its obligations, then surely they should be able to explain where those dollars it is ostensibly going to get from someone else — taxpayers, China, whoever — could have come from in the first place. Nathan Tankus is almost certainly doing the best analysis of what’s happening with the bailouts — and the mainstream press is rapidly recognizing that fact: https://nathantankus.substack.com/ It really would be helpful if the left would get up to speed on how central banking works, because the scales are very rapidly falling from the eyes of those members of the capitalist class who didn’t already understand this stuff, and they’re quite happy to use it against us while we continue to wallow in our ignorance. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
