It is important to understand that under certain conditions, quantitative easing amounts to the cancellation of public debt bought by the central bank

When a central bank implements quantitative easing, it buys (mainly) public sector debt. If the central bank: Transfers its profits to the government; Does not reduce the size of its balance sheet in the future, then quantitative easing amounts to the cancell ation of public debt bought by the central bank. To be sure, the government does pay interest on its public debt to the central bank, but the central bank then transfers this back to the government: the public debt becomes free. Moreover, the government no longer has to repay this debt, as the central bank renews its holdings : in reality , a perpetually free debt is cancelled . This is another demonstration of the equivalence between quantitative easing and helicopter money. With helicopter money, the central bank creates money without any counterpart. But the public debt held by the central bank under quantitative easing has no value, since it is in effect cancelled.