4 ms·

They printed $4+ trillion in the aftermath and gave it to banks.

• openasocket 9y ago
  No, they gave them credit for the money on their accounts, they didn't physically print any more money than they did normally.
  • peterjlee 9y ago
    Isn't it already a common knowledge when someone says "the Fed prints money", they're flipping digits in their computers and not actually printing paper bills? The Fed doesn't print the paper bills anyways. The Treasury does it.
    • openasocket 9y ago
      But the point is that they could still do this with bitcoin. Even if they don't have the ability to create a bunch of bitcoins out of thin air, they do have the ability to credit their accounts. As you said, "So that's how the bitcoin came about to make a currency where there are no central governing body that can just print more whenever it wants," but the bailouts absolutely could still occur, because you don't have to directly control the money supply to be able to act as a lender of last resort.
      • peterjlee 9y ago
        What do you mean by "they do have the ability to credit their accounts"? So the Fed will print more dollars and buy bitcoin? The total number of Bitcoin still doesn't change and it will raise the value of Bitcoin while devaluing dollars. The bailouts can still occur but it will occur in dollars since that's the only currency the Fed can print. If the Fed prints more dollars, it will devalue the dollar and everyone who holds dollar will have less purchasing power while if you had Bitcoin (or gold or any other currency), you're purchasing power won't be affected.