[Toddsterpatriot]

every dollar of debt issued by treasury has to be purchased with dollars generated (at one time or another) by the Fed then?

Why? The Fed's balance sheet is about $4 trillion. Treasury debt is about $17 trillion.

[Errant]

The Fed's balance sheet is about $4 trillion.

Agree, the rest of the 17T being from various other sources. As you said, must use dollars to purchase the debt - no? Since the Fed has the keys to the printing press, there would be no need for them to acquire dollars. But the Fed buying debt is a "recent" development (i.e. QE).

The remainder though (approximately 13T) was purchased using US dollars?