I’ve once heard that the USA owns most of its debt to itself, how is that possible? How can you owe debt to yourself?

Question

I’ve once heard that the USA owns most of its debt to itself, how is that possible? How can you owe debt to yourself?

In: 252

Answer 1

Basically, the government “prints” money to pay for things, with the intent of “destroying” money when there’s a budget surplus. This almost never happens, which is why inflation is near constant over the decades.

We call this “national debt” for some stupid reason, even though it’s a horribly inaccurate way to describe it.