> The Fed may have bought treasury bonds but those still have to be paid back. Do you mean that when securities owned by the Fed mature, the Fed will destroy t

> The Fed may have bought treasury bonds but those still have to be paid back. Do you mean that when securities owned by the Fed mature, the Fed will destroy the money that it had created to buy them? In practice, I don't think that has really been happening. They have just been reinvesting proceeds in new securities (at least the principal; they send some (all?) interest to the Treasury). This may change at some point, but so far the Fed has periodically increased its balance sheet while never substantially reducing it [1]. If that continues long term, the Fed's "temporary" money is effectively permanent. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL