fiat money cannot be collected in taxes before it is issued and spent; the amount of fiat money in circulation is exactly the government debt--money spent but not collected in taxes. In a quip, "fiat money governments are 'spend and tax', not 'tax and spend'"--deficit spending comes first.

Chartalists argue that nations are fundamentally different from households. Governments in a fiat money system which only have debt in their own currency can issue other