Lot of talk about gov't paying for stimulus, etc. by just printing money. The gov't can't just print add'l money without it showing up as add'l gov't debt, can it or does it?
Sure they can. Its called our national deficit. If this obama stimulas does;nt work to stimulate spending, I would say gold and other metals would be good to get into.
Excellent q. No they can't. If the want to print 700bn for example, they have to go to the fed and ask for it. It will show up on the national debt, even though it is printed money and owed to no one. The incredible thing is our government has to pay interest to the fed to print money. This the greatest fraud in history. So not only by printing money they are robbing everyone holding USD by devaluation, they are robbing the taxpayer since they will have to pay interest on the printed money!
A detailed answer to your question can be found here: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/02/steve-keen-roving-cavaliers-of-credit.html As for future trends, I tend to agree with this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJ7LM3iyNg
The level of ignorance here astonishes me. Money supply is a seperate measure, and can be arbitrarily created or destroyed. The fed creates money by creating a currency liability and buying an asset (usually treasuries) on its balance sheet. The fed could print 6T-7T right now and arbitrarily gift it to the US govt, effectively paying off the total national debt. That would of course be very inflationary... Also... All profits the Fed makes off the banking system etc are then distributed to the US treasury. There is no fraud or scheme here. It is collectively the US govt balance sheet. I recommend you spend some time on econbrowser.com ... you are massively confused and should immediately stop giving out your perception of 'knowledge'.
I don't understand......you say it will show up as national debt, but then you say it is owed to no one. Isn't it borrowed as bonds and notes from citizens, Chinese, Japanese, and other purchasers of our debt worldwide. My question is whether the gov't can just print money without it becoming debt that the government owes to somebody? Thanks, Stosh
OP, don't listen to this idiot. He is the confused one. http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/JFK.html http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/president-obama-nationalize-the-fed-and-create-our-own-money/ I rest my case.
What puzzles me is why the government can issue a bond, which is nothing more than a promise to pay but it can't issue it's own currency, which, likewise, would be nothing more than a promise to pay. The US's debt is backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government and their power to levy taxes so why can't the US issue its own currency, which would also be backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government and its power to levy taxes?
If governments refuse to shrink in line with their dwindling tax revenues, yes, it's a good possibility. It's a matter of how stubborn they are at the end of the day, but I reckon they'll be as stubborn as ever right till the end.