It’s not just Treasury bonds, bills and notes.
Things started in 2006, when Republicans let Demonrats set election rules that enable the steal of the House and Senate. Sound familiar?
The Federales, starting 1 October 2008, with George Bush as President, paid and pay banks for excess reserves. Before that, excess reserves just sat there until the bank loaned out the money (actually, ones and zeroes on a computer). As of 13 January 2023, the interest rate paid from Treasury to the banks on excess reserves (an accounting amount, not a bond, stock, etc.) is 4.40%.
Zero risk. It keeps the bank from loaning the excess reserves to build houses, factories, credit cards, auto loans, etc. So, if after paying for a bank location, risk manager, loan officer, janitor, bank president, the banks estimates that after allowing for loan losses, slow pays, traffic lights, etc. that the loan will generate less than 4.40% on a risk-adjusted basis, you don’t get the loan. Sorry. The bank gets 4.40%.
To be complete, the bank will loan money to a publicly traded company to buy back shares of its stock, even if it won’t lend the money to build a new factory for the same company, and even if the company is not profitable.
Great input on the nuts and bolts at work here. Bottom line that this “interest” on the manufactured debt is going to (mostly crooked) bankers, which most people don’t get. It’s probably one of the main reasons the debt is being run up. But without a change to the mechanics, behind the scenes as you describe, it wouldn’t make as much sense, because inflation would eat up a lot of the value of the interest earned, eventually.