Lena Petrova
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&si=LSsQhTRx27T4MOpk&v=HcxlWFSQnnU&feature=youtu.be
(Editor’s Note: A member of our Forum, Sam Chen, shared the following video with us a few days ago. The contents are vitally important for everyone living in the United States. It discussed the U.S. Government debt situation. How did it happen? Why does a country that can print its currency freely pile up such an unbelievably large debt? See how the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President of the United States, Jared Bernstein, tried to dodge the most crucial questions: What is the role of the Federal Reserve System in the debt piling process? Is the Federal Reserve System a part of the U.S. Government?
Please note that the below transcript of the video reflected the actual talks of the persons in the video. It is not the best written English.
Paul Tung, English Editor of the US-China Forum)
Petrova :
Hi everyone, welcome back. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I want to warn you that you may just watch the most shocking and honestly frightening video that you've seen in a long time.
Jared Bernstein is the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President of the United States. This is a high-profile position you would agree, and it certainly requires one to understand economics to have a really good knowledge of economics at least, at the very least, a person has to understand the basics. Why? Well, because the top advisor on economic policy makes important calls that affect the entire country, affect you and me. If you have seen at least 10 of my videos, you know that I do spend a considerable amount of time on the national debt crisis. I talk about it and also discuss why it is destroying our economy and our country. Everybody understands that 34 plus trillion dollars in debt is simply unsustainable and it is not going to end well. It's just a matter of time.
Well, Jared Bernstein wants you to know that no matter what happens the United States of America cannot go bankrupt precisely because we can print our own money. Just turn that money printer on, he says, and it will fix all of your problems. It will make everything go away says Bernstein but then he's asked a follow-up question, a very logical one: he is asked if the United States Government can print money, then why does
it need to borrow? The interviewer is asking him to explain why the US Government borrows money if it can print an unlimited amount of cash. Why go into debt when you have a money printer that you can literally keep on nonstop? It is a great question, but it is not a difficult one. Well, it may be difficult, if you've never taken an economics class.
If you've never bothered to really learn anything at all about how the United States Government functions, how it operates, and how it funds itself. But for the top economic advisor to the President of the United States that question should be a piece of cake. You would think so. Anyway, I want you to watch this video I want you to watch this clip of Jared Bernstein somewhat struggling just a tiny bit, and then let me know what you make of it in the comments below. I would love to hear your take on this and your response to what you're about to see. Watch!
Bernstein:
The US Government can't go bankrupt because we can print our own money. It obviously begs the question of why exactly are we borrowing in a currency that we print ourselves. I'm waiting for someone to stand up and say why do we borrow our own currency in the first place. Like you said they print the dollar so why does the government even borrow? Well, so I mean again some of this stuff gets some of the languages that the some of the language and concepts just confusing I mean the government definitely prints money and it definitely lends that money, which is why the government definitely prints money, and then it lends that money by selling bonds. Is that what they do? They um they yeah, they um they sell bonds, yeah they sell bonds right because they sell bonds and people buy the bonds and lend them the money. Yeah so, a lot of times a lot of times at least in my years with the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing, but there is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to um uh uh so um yeah I guess I'm just I don't I can't really talk. I don't I don't get it I don't know what they're talking about like because it's like the government clearly prints money. It does it all the time and it clearly borrows otherwise we wouldn't be having this debt and deficit conversation, so I don't think there's anything confusing.
Petrova:
There so there's a lot to unpack here of course everybody knows and should be able to articulate that the United States Government does not actually print money. It does not print cash. When the supply of cash increases so does inflation. Money printing fuels inflation. It is a direct relationship and we learned that very well a couple of years ago. Thanks to stimulus checks and the PPP program that was available for small businesses here in the United States instead of printing cash uh the United States Government actually sells its debt to uh borrow money. Who buys it? Well, until recently foreign governments and investors considered US treasuries to be the safest investment. That has changed, of course, and is no longer the case and that is the main problem. What will happen if the United States Government cannot find enough buyers to purchase its debt, If there are no buyers willing to lend money?
The government that's running massive budget deficits won't be able to operate just like you and I. We cannot live uh if we spend more than what we make every single month. It doesn't work that way. Eventually, we'll go bankrupt. So, the United States Government desperately needs buyers for its debt and that is why it's willing to pay higher interest to make its offer more appealing to doubting investors. High interest means higher government spending. it is a vicious cycle, as you can see, the Federal Reserve on the other hand can print money out of thin air to buy US Government debt.
Of course, this process is far more nuanced than I just described um and uh I may go into more detail in my future videos. But the question that I have after watching Jared Bernstein’s response is why was it so difficult for him to answer a seemingly easy question. Was it difficult for him? Maybe it wasn’t difficult at all. Maybe answering the question would have revealed that the entire system is just a massive scam. Is that why he didn’t answer? Let me know what you think in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts as always. Please like, subscribe, and share. Make sure that you follow me on Substack Telegram and other platforms linked in the description below. I would love to see you there as well. Thanks for watching. Thank you for your support and I will see you back here tomorrow. Bye for now.
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