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Treasury Takes Step 1 in Avoiding the Debt Ceiling

Jan. 27, 2011 2:43 PM ET
Donald Marron profile picture
Donald Marron
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As expected, Treasury has announced that it will allow the $200 billion Supplemental Financing Program to run down to only $5 billion; that will save $195 billion of borrowing authority under the current debt ceiling:

Treasury Issues Debt Management Guidance on the Supplementary Financing Program
1/27/2011
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets, Mary Miller, today issued the following statement on the Supplementary Financing Program:
“Beginning on February 3, 2011, the balance in the Treasury’s Supplementary Financing Account will gradually decrease to $5 billion, as outstanding Supplementary Financing Program bills mature and are not rolled over. This action is being taken to preserve flexibility in the conduct of debt management policy.”​

Treasury created the SFP in order to help the Fed expand its balance sheet without “printing money” (or, more accurately, “printing reserves”). Under the program, Treasury issues bonds, as usual, but it deposits the proceeds in an account at the Federal Reserve, rather than using them to pay the nation’s bills. The Fed then uses those deposits to purchase assets. Since the money ultimately comes from investors who own the new Treasury bonds, the SFP allows the Fed to expand its balance sheet without creating reserves out of thin air.

With the program winding down — at least until the debt ceiling gets raised — the Fed will have to ask its electronic printing press for another $195 billion if it wants to maintain its targeted portfolio.

This article was written by

Donald Marron profile picture
314 Followers
I am director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and a visiting professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in Washington, DC, where I will teach microeconomics and public finance. I also write about economics, finance, and life at dmarron.com. From 2002 to early 2009, I served in various senior positions in the White House and Congress including: Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), Acting Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and Executive Director of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee (JEC). In short, I’ve been blessed to serve at some of the best acronyms in government. Before my government service, I had a varied career as a professor, consultant, and entrepreneur. In the mid-1990s, I taught economics and finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. I then spent about a year-and-a-half consulting on antitrust cases at Charles River Associates in Washington, DC. After that, I took the plunge into the world of new ventures, serving as Chief Financial Officer of a health care software start-up in Austin, TX. After that fascinating experience, I started my career in public service. I received my Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and my B.A. in Mathematics a couple miles down the road at Harvard.

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