the federal reserve decides to print money in the us.
the federal reserve decides to print money in the us.
who decides to print money in the us?
the federal reserve
richard w. fisher, president of the federal reserve bank of dallas, warned in 2010 that qe carries "the risk of being perceived as embarking on the slippery slope of debt monetization. we know that once a central bank is perceived as targeting government debt yields at a time of persistent budget deficits, concern about debt monetization quickly arises." later in the same speech, he stated that the fed is monetizing the government debt: "the math of this new exercise is readily transparent: the federal reserve will buy $110 billion a month in treasuries, an amount that, annualized, represents the projected deficit of the federal government for next year. for the next eight months, the nation's central bank will be monetizing the federal debt." ben bernanke remarked in 2002 that the us government had a technology called the printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), so that if rates reached zero and deflation threatened, the government could always act to ensure deflation was prevented. he said, however, that the government would not print money and distribute it "willy nilly" but would rather focus its efforts in certain areas (e.g., buying federal agency debt securities and mortgage-backed securities). according to economist robert mcteer, former president of the federal reserve bank of dallas, there is nothing wrong with printing money during a recession, and quantitative easing is different from traditional monetary policy "only in its magnitude and pre-announcement of amount and timing".
quantitative easing
it was said that spaulding was the one who figured out that the american government needed to print money to pay for the civil war. at the time, it was regarded as economic heresy, but today many believe that the country would not have survived without it. such an idea was then dismissed by some as "fiat money," money that is money not because it is backed by gold or silver, but because some government says it is money. he was chairman of a house ways and means subcommittee when the government was in danger of running out of money to pay for the war. he wrote a law that allowed the government to print money and declare it had to be accepted as legal tender.
elbridge g. spaulding