The Journal of Financial Crises Volume 2 Issue 4 2020 Monetization of Fiscal Deficits and COVID-19: A Primer Aidan Lawson Financial Stability Institute, Bank for International Settlements Greg Feldberg Yale University Follow this and additional works at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/journal-of-financial-crises Part of the Economic Policy Commons, Finance Commons, Finance and Financial Management Commons, Other Economics Commons, and the Public Administration Commons Recommended Citation Lawson, Aidan and Feldberg, Greg (2020) "Monetization of Fiscal Deficits and COVID-19: A Primer," The Journal of Financial Crises: Vol. 2 : Iss. 4, 1-35. Available at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/journal-of-financial-crises/vol2/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journal of Financial Crises and EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Monetization of Fiscal Deficits and COVID-19: A Primer Aidan Lawson† Greg Feldberg‡ ABSTRACT Monetization—also known as “money-financed fiscal programs” or “money-printing”— occurs when a government finances itself by issuing currency or other non-interest-bearing liabilities, such as bank reserves. It poses real risks—potentially excessive inflation and encroachment on central-bank independence—and some paint it as a relic of a bygone era. The onset of the COVID-19 crisis, however, forced governments to spend heavily to combat the considerable economic and public health impacts. As government deficits climbed, monetization re-entered the conversation as a way to avoid the massive debt burdens that some nations may face. This paper describes how monetization works, provides key historical examples, and examines recent central-bank measures.