After taking note of a slide in this 2012 Randy Wray video, I chased down the source for this much quoted statement from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, from Why Health Care Matters and the Current Debt Does Not Oct, 2011
As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bill. In this sense, the government is not dependent on credit markets to remain operational. Moreover, there will always be a market for U.S. government debt at home because the U.S. government has the only means of creating risk-free dollar denominated assets.
After a lifetime of feeling vaguely gaslighted, it’s a relief when economists help me understand how things work. In looking for the source, I came across a group of interesting quotes in this post from economist John Harvey (@John_T_Harvey):
“The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default.”
— Alan Greenspan
“In the case of United States, default is absolutely impossible. All U.S. government debt is denominated in U.S. dollar assets.”
— Peter Zeihan, Vice President of Analysis for STRATFOR
“In the case of governments boasting monetary sovereignty and debt denominated in its own currency, like the United States (but also Japan and the UK), it is technically impossible to fall into debt default.”
— Erwan Mahe, European asset allocation and options strategies adviser
“There is never a risk of default for a sovereign nation that issues its own free-floating currency and where its debts are denominated in that currency.”
— Mike Norman, Chief Economist for John Thomas Financial
“There is no inherent limit on federal expenses and therefore on federal spending…When the U.S. government decides to spend fiat money, it adds to its banking reserve system and when it taxes or borrows (issues Treasury securities) it drains reserves from its banking system. These reserve operations are done solely to maintain the target Federal Funds rate.”
— Monty Agarwal , managing partner and chief investment officer of MA Managed Futures Fund
Our growing collection of quotes are here.