The Fed’s balance sheet isn’t anywhere approaching $16T—the last I looked it was under $2T. About half of that is growth since the recession hit, in the form of the Fed printing money and loaning it out. If the $16T number is anything more than a fever dream, the number comes from something like “We loaned $1 to you yesterday, you paid it back, now we’re loaning $1 to my mother, so that’s $2 of loans”—literally true, but you’re counting the same dollar multiple times.
The Fed’s balance sheet isn’t anywhere approaching $16T—the last I looked it was under $2T. About half of that is growth since the recession hit, in the form of the Fed printing money and loaning it out. If the $16T number is anything more than a fever dream, the number comes from something like “We loaned $1 to you yesterday, you paid it back, now we’re loaning $1 to my mother, so that’s $2 of loans”—literally true, but you’re counting the same dollar multiple times.