The Debt to GDP Ratio Is Not Increasing - Is It?

Felix: I'm very open to the idea of having the deficits without the debt. We can run fiscal deficits without increasing the debt, he says. The problem is that for reasons that behoove me, we count the Treasuries that sit on the Fed's balance sheet as part of the publicly held debt. Felix: Why do you think no one in contemporary planet Earth does this? He asks why governments around the world feel the need to cover every single dollar of government spending with a dollar of government borrowing.