• gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    11 hours ago

    basically when the federal government goes into debt, that basically means that the federal reserve which you can imagine like a big bank hands out a loan to the government.

    the government doesn’t really have to pay back that debt, ever. (it technically has to but that can be avoided by simply taking out a new loan at a later time).

    i hope i explained that correctly.

    • omega_x3@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 hours ago

      It does have to pay interest on that debt to all the bond holders, if it doesn’t then the bonds lose value and everyone that owns them trys to offload them.

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        8 hours ago

        if the interest is just as high as the general inflation, then the government can just take out extra loans to serve the interest without actually increasing the real total debt, because the nominal increase in debt is just eaten by the inflation.