Why do countries keep printing money

The central banks have remained very liquid. Were they to use that extra money to increase the credit they extend to individuals and companies, that too could prove inflationary. It seems to be the case that an ageing and declining population has not wanted to take advantage of the expanded cash balances and the opportunities to borrow more at very low interest rates to expand their purchases to create shortages.

Japan has all but abolished inflation since its banking crash of the late s, with many people favouring savings over borrowing more. The US cannot expect that its younger and growing population will necessarily behave in this Japanese way. As the economy improves, they should expect people and companies to want to spend and borrow more.

The authorities will need to rein in excess money printing in good time, and ensure they supervise the expansion of credit by the commercial banks in a timely and sensible way. The European Central Bank remains wedded to printing more at least until the end of the first quarter of and maybe beyond. They may be right in hoping that their economy, also with an ageing and falling population in many countries, has more of the characteristics of Japan to avoid inflationary problems as it has done so far.

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Just click the subscribe button below to start our quick signup. Follow us:. The value of investments, and the income derived from them, can fall as well as rise. The cause of the current crisis is a pandemic that forced businesses to shut down for weeks, leading both the Fed and Congress to take extraordinary measures.

Congress is approving huge amounts of spending on stimulus and relief while the Fed is creating huge amounts of dollars that end up paying for that debt. Tcherneva is on the opposite side of the spectrum from Paul.

She is a proponent of "Modern Monetary Theory," which argues that the government can always pay its bills by creating more money, minimizing the importance of deficits and debt. Not every country can do this — only those that issue their own currency.

But there are limits. In doing so, it effectively steps on the gas during times like this and hits the brakes when the economy appears to overheat and prices rise too fast. Just as it can increase the money supply by creating money, the Fed can also reduce it by making moves that increase interest rates, such as selling some of the securities on its balance sheet, effectively taking money out of the system.

Going too far in either direction at the wrong time can hurt the economy. In this economic emergency, the Fed has signaled it will do what it takes. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tells climate change activist Greta Thunberg to get an economics degree. At the same time, Congress's spending still creates debt from the Treasury that has to be paid back. How much debt is too much? Powell told reporters that the U. He added that those concerns now must take a backseat to getting out of this crisis.

Tcherneva downplayed debt concerns in the long term, noting that Japan is still able to service its debt despite having a debt-to-GDP ratio more than double that of the U. UK markets close in 4 hours 48 minutes. FTSE 7, FTSE 23, AIM 1, CMC Crypto 1, DOW 35, DAX 16, CAC 40 7, Crypto: Bitcoin slides, Solana falls and Binance freezes dogecoin withdrawals Major cryptocurrencies were down on Friday after coming off all-time highs earlier this week.

Read full article. More content below. In this article:. A lot of people out there are asking "why can't we just print more money and solve the poverty problem? So, the influx of cash printed money would seem to solve the unemployment problem. So, here is where I'm confused But here's the catch.

Hence the problem. But how does that relate to American economics since there is no "cashing out" procedure. If the government gave everyone a bunch more money, there is no "checks and balances" since no one, at the end of the day, goes to the cashier station and exchanges their "chips" money in this case for something of value. Exchanging your chips at the end of the day for MONEY back which has value in our eyes makes sense, hence why you can't give out more chips than the money you have in the vault.

But it seems the American dollar is not a paper representation of the "money in the vault" no one goes to cash in their money in America.