[HN Gopher] U.S. Treasury Data Lab ___________________________________________________________________ U.S. Treasury Data Lab Author : accountinhn Score : 54 points Date : 2021-09-14 19:10 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (datalab.usaspending.gov) (TXT) w3m dump (datalab.usaspending.gov) | Gabriel_Martin wrote: | When it comes to comparing the amounts of US gov spending to US | household spending (not that I could propose a better mechanism, | meaning I understand the value of framing things in such a way, | and fully admit I can't think of a more salient way to do it) I'm | just not a fan of comparing state level spending to household or | personal finance. | | It leads to other examples being used that just are not true. | Like: "It is similar to a person using his or her credit card for | a purchase (rather than cash, check, or a debit card) and not | paying the full credit card balance each month". | | I cannot sell access to my debt to pay for past debts, which is | how the government has paid it's debts since 1837 (probably so | long ago because that the last time we sought to destroy debt and | not pay for things by monetizing debt, it caused the longest | depression in American history due to Jackson's monetary policy | in 1835). Nor can I create credit out of thin air, by buying | treasuries my member banks. Also, I most definitely do not owe | 50% of my non-intergovernmental debt to my own central bank and | state and local governments and their pensions. Much less, all | the while operating with a currency I control. | | So yeah, I don't love it, but I get it. | Aliabid94 wrote: | Would be great if we could dive in deeper, breaking it down by | expense purpose, regions, etc. | [deleted] | aazaa wrote: | > While the Department of the Treasury prints actual dollars, | "printing money" is also a term that is sometimes used to | describe a means of monetary policy, which is conducted by the | Federal Reserve. Monetary policy involves controlling the supply | of money and the cost of borrowing. The Federal Reserve uses | monetary policy to promote maximum employment, stable prices, and | moderate long-term interest rates on the behalf of the Congress. | The federal government uses fiscal policy, or the control of | taxation and government spending, to promote economic activity. | | I can't help but think this is confusing as heck to most | Americans. | | I'm not sure all of the quoted statements are true. Private banks | create a good chunk of the new money that goes into circulation | by issuing loans. The Federal government (through the Treasury) | creates still more by issuing bonds to cover deficit spending. | | The Fed can influence the rate of money creation by setting short | term rates. But the Fed can't force banks to loan money, so its | power is limited. Especially so with short term rates pegged at | zero for most of the last 13 years or so. | | Although some view the Fed's QE as a form of "money printing," | it's not. It's an asset swap in which the Federal reserve buys a | Treasury from a bank, issuing a reserve asset as a credit to the | bank. Reserve assets thereby become "trapped" inside the banking | system. They are not cash and can only be used under very | restricted conditions (not unlike a laundry token) at least | according to some sources. | nojito wrote: | Providing liquidity via loans does not mean private banks are | creating money! | tick_tock_tick wrote: | > Private banks create a good chunk of the new money that goes | into circulation by issuing loans. | | Even this is misleading private banks do not "create" money. | They add to the supply but do not create. For every loan credit | there is an equal loan debit. The total amount of money, the | sum of all credits and debits, is the exact same. | AnimalMuppet wrote: | Yes, but also no. | | Yes, a loan creates both a credit and a debit, and they | offset exactly. In that sense, nothing is created. | | But the credit spends just like cash. The debit, on the other | hand, does _not_ spend like negative cash. So in the sense of | the supply of money _in circulation_ , bank loans create | money. | lend000 wrote: | As the other commenter implied, in a fractional reserve | banking system (where banks lend any amount > 0, and are not | just acting as vaults), banks do indeed create money [0]. | | Printed dollars are necessary in an amount proportional to | economic activity, and the sum of printed dollars is only | loosely related to the total money supply as it affects the | macroeconomy (and is becoming less relevant every year). | | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_multiplier | Gabriel_Martin wrote: | From your link, wouldn't: "the multiplier being the maximum | amount of commercial bank money created by a given unit of | central bank money" be interpreted to mean that as soon as | central bank monetizes it's debt, i.e. the money is | initially created, it inherently is equal to a certain | amount of commercial bank money, as long as it doesn't | remain unlent? So it's not really the new creation of | money, but rather the realization of it's value, upon being | lent by a bank? | BobbyJo wrote: | > The total amount of money, the sum of all credits and | debits, is the exact same. | | Can't banks lend something like 7X more money than they have | in deposits? | pphysch wrote: | > Although some view the Fed's QE as a form of "money | printing," it's not. It's an asset swap in which the Federal | reserve buys a Treasury from a bank, issuing a reserve asset as | a credit to the bank. Reserve assets thereby become "trapped" | inside the banking system. They are not cash and can only be | used under very restricted conditions (not unlike a laundry | token) at least according to some sources. | | According to [1], "[Federal Reserve Deposits] are | interchangeable with Federal Reserve Notes", i.e. cash. But you | are claiming the opposite. Do you have a source? | | [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Deposits ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-09-14 23:00 UTC)