Financial repression
Glossary · The macro framework Macro
Holding the return on savings below the rate at which money loses value, so that government debt shrinks against the economy while savers pay for it. It is measured, not alleged: an IMF working paper by Acalin and Ball found that of the 83-point fall in US debt-to-GDP from 1946 to 1974, real growth explained 12 points and interest-rate distortions 28.
The quiet mechanism between the prints. The cheerful story that America grew out of its war debt is not what happened. Savers paid it down and were never asked.