At the close of the federal government's 2022 fiscal year, the Federal Reserve owned $5.7 trillion of the U.S. national debt, more than any other entity and 18% of the total debt. In comparison, China owned 3% of the debt, and mutual funds owned 8%. Since 2008, the amount of national debt owned by the Fed has grown by 13 times. This dramatic increase is primarily due to a policy called "quantitative easing" in which the Fed prints new money to buy debt from governments and corporations. The stated purpose of this policy is the keep interest rates low, but it can have many other effects like causing inflation and shifting wealth from middle-income households to high-income ones.