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How is the USD still worth anything with the incredible amount that has been printed? The fed chair himself said we can just print more money if we need it. [2]

How is the USD still worth anything with the incredible amount that has been printed? The fed chair himself said we can just print more money if we need it. [2] No other country can do that without going into hyperinflation. "$12 billion in U.S. currency was transported from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad in April 2003 and June 2004, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. A Vanity Fair magazine report concluded that of this sum, "at least $9 billion has gone missing"" [1] $12 Billion in cash!! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_misappropriations_related_to_the_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_misappropriatio... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6vi528gseA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6vi528gseA

SilasX 8y ago
Upvoting because that incident is interesting, but this is false: >No other country can do that without going into hyperinflation. Other CBs have significant enough credibility or special situations where they can print comparable money without setting off hyperinflation. Definitely Japan's and probably Europe's.
Dirlewanger 8y ago
It's still worth something because the federal government says it's worth something. That's what a fiat currency is.
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  That's not at all how it works. Zimbabwe and Venezuela's federal governments claimed their currencies were worth something until they were blue in the face. It's worth something because the people using it feel it's worth something, and that's true for non-fiat currencies as well. Bitcoin and gold are non-fiat, but still heavily depend on demand to determine their value.
ceejayoz 8y ago
> No other country can do that without going into hyperinflation. That's simply false. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing#After_2007 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing#After_2007 Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, the Eurozone... The EU injected €2.4 trillion in this fashion over a four year period. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ecb-money-printing-european-central-bank-end-date-a8398576.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ecb-money-p...) $12B is nothing.
ForHackernews 8y ago
Not that $12 billion cash isn't a lot of money, but just to put things in perspective, the US government was spending about $20 billion per year just on air conditioning: https://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning https://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-... It turns out warfare is extremely expensive (see also: guns v. butter) and one of your line items is buying off local warlords.

SilasX 8y ago

Upvoting because that incident is interesting, but this is false: >No other country can do that without going into hyperinflation. Other CBs have significant enough credibility or special situations where they can print comparable money without setting off hyperinflation. Definitely Japan's and probably Europe's.

Dirlewanger 8y ago

It's still worth something because the federal government says it's worth something. That's what a fiat currency is.

ceejayoz 8y ago
That's not at all how it works. Zimbabwe and Venezuela's federal governments claimed their currencies were worth something until they were blue in the face. It's worth something because the people using it feel it's worth something, and that's true for non-fiat currencies as well. Bitcoin and gold are non-fiat, but still heavily depend on demand to determine their value.

ceejayoz 8y ago

> No other country can do that without going into hyperinflation. That's simply false. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing#After_2007 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing#After_2007 Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, the Eurozone... The EU injected €2.4 trillion in this fashion over a four year period. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ecb-money-printing-european-central-bank-end-date-a8398576.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ecb-money-p...) $12B is nothing.

ForHackernews 8y ago

Not that $12 billion cash isn't a lot of money, but just to put things in perspective, the US government was spending about $20 billion per year just on air conditioning: https://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning https://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-... It turns out warfare is extremely expensive (see also: guns v. butter) and one of your line items is buying off local warlords.