In the United States, the federal government not having enough money for spending is the new normal. One thing that never gets discussed is how the government sells its debt in the form of “bonds”.

What may surprise many is that banks and other financial institutions  do it for the government and they are called “Primary Dealers”. Once the government has a certain amount to sell, these dealers take it to market and sell it. Here is the list of dealers:

Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency
BMO Capital Markets Corp.
BNP Paribas Securities Corp.
Barclays Capital Inc.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.
Jefferies LLC
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc.
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC
RBS Securities Inc.
SG Americas Securities, LLC
TD Securities (USA) LLC
UBS Securities LLC

So next time you hear a politician claim banks or financial institutions are evil, they are the ones selling the debt to help that same politician in their spending addiction.