> I don't understand how printing money could not cause inflation Suppose the government prints one dollar and shortly thereafter everyone goes bankrupt and co

> I don't understand how printing money could not cause inflation Suppose the government prints one dollar and shortly thereafter everyone goes bankrupt and collapses the money multiplier. This will definitely result in net deflation. OK, that's extreme, but it should prove a point in extremis. But it is possible that the government could print money and suddenly people stop... paying off their debts, or something. Maybe they start thinking that dollar-denominated-capitalism is pointless because it's all cronies that get it anyways, and just exit the economy. Or like, screwing the poor through inflation triggers some sort of revolution and all the banks selectively are levelled by anarchist activists. So "printing money" could definitely cause deflation in some scenarios. You probably don't want to be participating in an economy that takes that turn.