It was debt. Okay. Let's follow this back a little further and reverse-engineer this. We realize that the buyers got it by borrowing it, but everything comes from somewhere. Where did the banking system suddenly get an extra $200 billion that it could lend out for five-year periods? It can't have come from deposits, because those of course are short term, and even short-term bursts in deposits can't be relied on for long-term loans.
Where would that $200 billion have come from?