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Comment by fbonetti

> My question is: if a government deficit is adding money to the economy, what a government surplus is doing? That's the meaning of "taxes destroy money".

It's rare for the federal government to run a surplus, but it did have one for four years straight in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001[1]. During that that time, the monetary base increased 32%[2] and the M2 money supply increase 23%[3].

No matter how you look at it, despite the government running a surplus, the money supply continued to increase. How do you square that with your claim that surpluses remove money from the economy?

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOGMBASEW

[3] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOGMBASE

parent fbonetti 6 years ago

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