Fiscal policy is what the government does. Governments sell bonds to raise money, this is what "government debt" is, a bunch of bonds each for a fixed period (u

Fiscal policy is what the government does. Governments sell bonds to raise money, this is what "government debt" is, a bunch of bonds each for a fixed period (usually between 1 and 30 years), pay interest each year and then repay the collateral when they expire. Monetary policy is what central banks do, and includes quantitative easing (QE) which is often referred to as "money printing". Monetary policy also includes setting interest rates, managing the supply of physical currency and acting as a clearing house for bank operations. The two are separate things but get conflated a lot in discussion - including on here - which makes the whole thing way more confusing than it could be. These Bank of England pamphlets on money in the modern economy are the clearest layman's overviews of the monetary policy side of things I've found: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2014/money-in-the-modern-economy-an-introduction.pdf https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-... https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2014/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy.pdf https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-...