No, the Federal Reserve does not "print money" or "create money out of thin air"

spongerobert wrote:

Barrett 82 wrote:

They merely create a credit, and viola, money is created.

What's viola money? Is that similar to cello money?

Awaiting illlumination.

Here it is...you ever heard of a misspelled word?

You really couldn't figure that out?

Then you find accounting comical because it's a typical accounting entry.

It's like a 401k loan. You have the loan you are paying back (to yourself) as a liability but your 401k account has an asset that is the loan receivable.

Are you talking about the US defaulting on debt to itself?

Currently annual proceeds are less than payouts.

That shrinks the social security fund.

Where does the cash shortage now come from? The general fund.

The liability to social security shrinks. And money is borrowed from elsewhere to cover the deficit in the general fund.

The national debt goes up.

Future cash flows and growth enable the debt to be manageable.

You'd have risk of real default if there is a depression.

But then you'd have all sorts of problems in that case.

Not that this has anything to do with the Federal reserve printing money.

They are printing money by exchanging new money for bank assets an such.

While new money is in the market these assets are not. And at a point where the assets are sold, the money goes back to the Fed, is out of the system and the assets are back in the system.

It's a temporary exchange and it is not simply creating money out of thin air to pay bills.

We don't "print"... we digitize.

X-Runner wrote:

Are you talking about the US defaulting on debt to itself?

Currently annual proceeds are less than payouts.

That shrinks the social security fund.

Where does the cash shortage now come from? The general fund.

The liability to social security shrinks. And money is borrowed from elsewhere to cover the deficit in the general fund.

Yes, from the general fund. Only there isn't enough money in the general fund so what does the Fed do? It sells Treasuries. To whom? Social Security buys the Treasuries.

The 401k scenario is a bit different because the 401k was an asset in the first place. Treasury bonds exist because there is debt. All I'm trying to point out is that a big chunk of this debt is due to the shortfall in Social Security, and it is ironic that Social Security then turns around holds the debt that it caused, as an asset. That's it. I wasn't trying to relate that to money printing at all.

You are out of your mind. The money is fake, it is backed by nothing, it is just paper. The Freemason run Fed creates money out of nothing and charges the us government interest on it. The us dollar will eventually collapse or be severely devalued.

The Fed has great powers. Let me give you a small example. The Fed is designated the nation's monopoly provider of paper currency. It buys new currency from the Treasury for use by banks. It actually reimburses the Treasury for the costs of printing the money. Here's what it pays the Treasury for currency (this is from the Fed's web site):

$1 and $2 5.5 cents per note

$5 10.9 cents per note

$10 9.9 cents per note

$20 and $50 10.6 cents per note

$100 14.3 cents per note

It sells the notes to banks (debiting their accounts at the Fed) at face value (or in exchange for used up notes). So for each net new note (in excess of currency then in circulation) the Fed makes a profit of $19.894 per $20 note, and $99.857 per $100 note.

There is $1.4 trillion of currency in circulation. At the profit margins indicated above, that's just a little more than the total profits made by the Fed over the years from its currency business alone.

(PS the Fed can cause as much money to exist as it wants, of course most money is not "printed", and the money that is printed is printed by the Treasury)

(PPS for those of you who believe the Fed is not a part of government, check out the Fed's web site where it clearly states that the Fed is in fact a part of government, and accountable to the US Congress)