[jjoonathan]

In theory, these are all just loans and they get paid back. In practice, the Fed's balance sheet just keeps increasing. A loan that always gets covered by a bigger loan is never really repaid, and a loan that is never repaid isn't a loan, it's a payment. These are payments disguised as loans. A fig leaf over a money printer.

Look, I understand that you don't want to base your opinion on speculation about the trajectory of the Fed's balance sheet, but do you see how this refusal would give the Fed license to print money in exactly the manner I describe, by perpetually growing the balance sheet?

Let's be concrete: would you be willing to bet me $10k that in 10 years the Fed's balance sheet is under $10T? If not, I rest my case: this is money printing, not liquidity provision, and the smart part of you not willing to take my bet understands this.