[neilwilson]

It's very simple.

Have you ever held a $100 note in your hand? If you have you have necessarily caused $100 of "debt" to the nation - because you haven't immediately spent it as soon as you received it.

If you'd spent it, it would be taxed as it moves and would rapidly become a $20, then a $10 and so on.

There are lots of reasons why you, and everybody else doing the same, hasn't spent that $100 yet.

What everybody gets excited about and calls "debt" is essentially the world's working capital.

The MMT view shift is straightforward. Stop calling it "debt", and call it what it is on the other side of the balance sheet "savings" or "assets". Then all becomes clear.