What if national debt = national savings?

What if the national debt is not a burden at all? What if it is simply the nation’s savings?  Any sensible analysis shows that this so-called debt is no such thing: it's just a massive savings bank operation. That sounds like a contradiction, but it is not. In fact, understanding this point changes almost everything about how we think about government finance, public spending, austerity and economic policy. In this video, I explain why every pound of government debt is also somebody else’s financial asset. I show why government bonds are not like household debt, why they function as savings accounts with the state, and why the financial system depends upon them. Pension funds, insurance companies, banks and many of the world’s largest investors all rely on UK government bonds as a safe place to hold wealth. I also explain why governments that issue their own currency are fundamentally different from households, why the UK government cannot run out of pounds, and why the idea that Britain must one day “pay off the national debt” makes little economic sense. The national debt exists because people and institutions want somewhere secure to save their money, and the government has a duty to accept those savings.  Along the way, I challenge some of the most common myths in economics. Are bond markets really in control of governments? Do bond vigilantes dictate public policy? Does rising government debt automatically create a crisis? Or have politicians, economists and commentators misunderstood the role that government bonds actually play in a modern economy? The answers matter because misunderstanding government debt has helped justify decades of unnecessary austerity, underinvestment, and fear about public spending. If we get the nature of government bonds wrong, we get much of economic policy wrong as well. If the national debt is actually national savings, then the debate about government finance needs to start in a very different place.