- [Narrator] When the economy screeched to a halt

in mid-March, businesses shut down almost overnight,

and quickly, millions of workers became unemployed.

Within weeks, the government moved

to provide trillions of dollars of stimulus relief

to workers and businesses throughout the economy.

- $1200 checks to anyone who makes less than $75,000.

- This is another $600 a week for four months.

- [Reporter] Congress approving another

$484 billion for loans.

- [Narrator] So where does all this money come from?

Is it taxpayer funds?

Is the government printing a bunch of new cash?

As you might expect, there's a lot more to know.

(pleasant orchestral music)

Congress can authorize taxes to pay for new spending,

but that's not where the stimulus money is coming from.

That money is being raised through borrowing.

The government expects to borrow a record $4.5 trillion

for the fiscal year that ends in September.

That's more than three times the $1.28 trillion

it borrowed the year prior.

That borrowed money is being used

to subsidize small business payrolls,

send checks to households,

and offer taxpayers a temporary holiday

on making tax payments.

The Treasury Department is in charge of the borrowing.

The agency borrows by selling treasury bills or bonds

to the three main groups of savers.

The public sector, like other parts of the government,

the private sector, which includes companies or individuals

like you and me, and foreign entities.

These bills are like IOUs, someone agrees to buy them,

and the government agrees to pay them back

with a little bit of interest.

In the meantime,

the government can use that borrowed money for stimulus

to support private individuals and companies,

or state and local governments.

- This year, the federal government will get

most of its borrowing from the private sector,

and the reason for that is because private borrowers

who would normally be competing with the federal government

for private savings, have basically disappeared.

- [Narrator] That stimulus money can make the economy larger

than it otherwise would have been.

It encourages employers to keep people employed,

and it encourages individuals to spend.

Here's a hypothetical example.

Let's say Congress authorizes

$1 billion in stimulus spending.

The Treasury would borrow one billion

by selling treasury bills.

It would then use that borrowed money

on the stimulus programs,

with the hopes of keeping the economy churning,

but it doesn't end there.

If the economy keeps moving,

households and businesses can keep earning income,

and some of that income can be saved,

and in the future, they can use those savings

to invest in more treasury bills,

supplying the government with more money to spend.

- The amount of saving in the economy is not a fixed amount.

Federal stimulus can actually result in more people working,

more firms having profits, higher incomes

than would have been the case

if there hadn't been any federal stimulus at all.

This is known as Keynesian stimulus

name for the British economist John Maynard Keynes

who first came up with the concept back in the 1930s.

The government is not like a family that has a fixed amount

and can't borrow more than it can pay back

because it'll go bankrupt.

Government can in effect borrow enough

to actually make the economy bigger.

- [Narrator] Now on top of the three main sources

of borrowing, there's another source too,

the Federal Reserve.

The central bank is like the other sources,

but with a key difference.

The Fed can raise funds to buy treasuries

by simply printing money.

- So when we say the Fed is printing money,

we don't literally mean it's firing up the printing presses

and creating paper money.

Instead, what we mean is the Fed basically clicks a button

and credit the Treasury's account with this money.

It's electronic money, it's not paper money.

- [Narrator] In effect, the Treasury sells a bond

and in return gets brand new money.

Right now, the Fed is ramping up its lending.

Assets on the central bank's balance sheet

topped $6.7 trillion during the first week of May 2020.

That gives the Treasury more money to spend

on stimulating the economy and other programs.

Critics of the stimulus, say the government competing

with other borrowers for savings

will push up interest rates,

making it harder for private companies

and individuals to borrow and invest.

They also say that if the Fed prints money

to finance the borrowing,

that will lead to inflation and economic turmoil,

like what's seen in Venezuela

and the trillion dollar notes seen in Zimbabwe,

- It's only a problem if they print and they print

and they print and the those dollars gets spent

and spent and spent again,

until all that spending far exceeds

the supply of goods and services in our economy,

that's when you get high inflation.

How will we know that's happening?

Well, we probably see long term interest rates start to rise

as investors get ready for the approach of inflation.

Then we'd start to see actual inflation rise,

but we're not seeing that now.

(pleasant mallet percussion music)