Note to economic woo woos: The Fed does not print money, the US Treasury does.

[Odin2005]

I keep hearing ignorant comments in many economy-oriented threads this BS about the Fed printing money followed by some screed about how "a private bank shouldn't be allowed to do that." Sorry to burst some people's bubble (no pun intended), but the Fed does NOT print money, it (if it's doing it's job properly) regulates how much money is the economy. Printing money is the Treasury's job.


Just something I felt compelled to rant about.

[Trillo]

1. Who prints electronic money. nt

[papau]

2. effectively the banks via their ability to make loans backed by loans n/t

n/t

[ret5hd]

3. and what is the name of the biggest bank of all?

[endarkenment]

4. Well in a literal sense that is true.

However the term long ago ceased to mean stamping out coins or printing out paper bills.

The FED creates 'money', as you yourself notes, it attempts to regulate how much 'money' is in circulation, and it fools around with interest rates. Over the last few months the FED has indeed done both, increasing the supply of dollars and just yesterday kicking down interest rates.