FED MONETIZES DEBT - REGARDLESS OF WHAT BERNANKE SAYS

What happens if you find yourself taking in less money due to a job change or no job at all and instead of cutting back and living within your means you just borrowed more money to keep on living like you've been doing?

Not that you could find a bank to lend to you. Unless, of course, the bank saw something in it for them, something like taking it all away from you when you default or perhaps controlling the wealth they allow you to retain.

The fact is that you wouldn't get a loan and you'd be forced to accept reality and make cuts if you have any hope of staying alive. The U.S. has chosen to borrow more and more to avoid reality and prop up the banks. Fortunately we have the world's reserve currency so other countries still need it and want it to retain it's value, even if they all have to accept a lie to do so.

But someday, probably sooner rather than later, the bills will come due and we'll pay the real cost for our inability to deal with reality.

But until then, "Party on, dudes!"

"The Federal Reserve has surpassed China as the leading holder of US Treasury securities even though it has yet to reach the halfway mark in its latest round of quantitative easing, according to official figures.

Based on weekly data released on Thursday, the New York Fed’s holdings of Treasuries in its System Open Market Account, known as Soma, total $1,108bn, made up of bills, notes, bonds and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or Tips.

According to the most recent US Treasury data on foreign holders of US government paper, China holds $896bn and Japan owns $877bn.

“By June [the Fed] will have accumulated some $1,600bn of Treasury securities, likely to be in the vicinity of China and Japan’s combined holdings,” said Richard Gilhooly, a strategist at TD Securities. “The New York Fed surpassed China in the past month as the largest holder of US Treasury securities,” he noted.

The Fed is buying Treasury debt under two programmes. The largest is QE2, which began in November and is scheduled to involve $600bn of purchases by June."
Financial Times