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Yes, but it's important to differentiate the Fed's debt purchases from other governments and private purchasers of debt. For entities, other than the Fed, having to use US dollars to buy US debt would seem to somewhat limit the amount of debt the government may issue (theoretically). In other words, the government could only sell an amount of new debt which is less than the amount of available dollars in circulation.

M2 is currently a bit less than $11 trillion. That doesn't seem to have stopped the government from issuing $17 trillion in debt. Not to mention trillions more in state and local debt, corporate and personal debt.

The Fed is buying about 85B a month, spit about 50/50 correct between MBS and the other - correct?

I think it was $45 billion US Treasuries, $40 billion MBS.

What amounts have they bought in the past before QE, Tarp, or etc.?

Their entire balance sheet, pre-crisis, was about $800 billion.

And the claim that the Treasury can only pay off debt with money from the Fed was incorrect.

Please explain this one (immediately above). That wasn't a part of our discussion

Pretty sure you claimed the Treasury could never pay off any debt, without more money issued by the Fed. If I misunderstood your claim, I apologize.

What does the treasury use to pay off debt if not dollars

The Treasury could pay off debt by raising revenues and cutting spending with no help or input from the Fed. In dollars, of course.

Thanks for you help on many of these figures!

Government debt is locked up in what is referred to as M4 money, isn't it? That means 17T out of use by the public. Might explain why M2V (velocity) is falling - the government is sucking too many dollars out of the economy? Then there is M3 which they stopped tracking sometime back.

What amounts have they bought in the past before QE, Tarp, or etc.?

Their entire balance sheet, pre-crisis, was about $800 billion

Now we're around 4T. Thanks.

Pretty sure you claimed the Treasury could never pay off any debt, without more money issued by the Fed. If I misunderstood your claim, I apologize.

Sorry, my excessive use of hyperbole mudded the waters. I'm pretty sure if you look at the US debt practically, it will never be paid off. Both because government spending makes up about half (IIRC) of our GDP and the entitled in this country will riot as soon as you begin any sort of meaningful cuts. How do you payoff a 17T debt with a collapsed economy?

I did say that in a debt based fiat system you could never pay off "the debt" (not treasury debt - the entire debt). To clarify that statement, it's pretty simple really: If the first unit had to be borrowed into existence, with interest, then that doesn't leave anything to pay the interest with, so you have to borrow that, and on and on to infinitum until the entire system collapses under its own weight.

Do you know of any reliable data about how much the Fed makes off of each dollar from creation to grave? Thanks!