Key fiscal and monetary mechanisms are still widely misunderstood

A growing number of articles and commentary are calling for: An increase in taxes (especially on high incomes, large fortunes, multinationals, etc.) in order to right the situation of public finances and finance the new public spending that is needed; The cancellation of the public debt held by the central bank to reduce the public debt burden for governments; The use of quantitative easing to the benefit of the greatest number of people in the most difficulty, and not “to the benefit of the banks”. The proliferation of such calls shows that two central mechanisms are still not understood: The fact that government bonds that are irreversibly (permanently) held by the central bank are de facto cancelled. It is the refore needless to explicitly cancel them (which would also be very dangerous) or increase taxes if the central bank announces that it will not reduce the size of its balance sheet in the future; The fact that governments and central banks are already implementing quantitative easing targeted at economic agents in difficulty, so there is no point protesting that they are not doing so.