by David Kranzler
Investment Research Dynamics
Scott Pelley, “60 Minutes:” “Where does it [money] come from?” Do you just print it?”
Jay Powell: “We print it digitally. So as a central bank, we have the ability to create money digitally. And we do that by buying Treasury Bills or bonds for other government guaranteed securities. And that actually increases the money supply…No, there’s really no limit to what we can do with these lending programs that we have. So there’s a lot more we can do to support the economy, and we’re committed to doing everything we can as long as we need to.”
I almost fell off my chair after I reading Powell’s comments on “60 Minutes” public relations stunt on behalf of the Fed. There’s two important points that stand out like like silent screams in Powell’s words: 1) 99% of the currency – not money – printed by the Fed goes directly to the banks or funds Government debt; a small trickle might get to Main Street to “support the economy;” 2) the Fed is willing to print an infinite amount of currency to keep the financial system propped up. In other words, the Fed is indeed printing helicopter money but it’s dropping it on the banks and not the economy at large.