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Does the Fed Print Money? Of Course! Jim Bianco Calls It “Fraud, Counterfeiting”

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Does the Fed print money?

Our recent attempt to answer this seemingly simple question prompted a torrent of comments, much of it negative and unfit for publication on a family-friendly Web site. (See: No, the Fed Does NOT 'Print Money': Just Explain It)

In the accompanying video, Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research, offers bit more sophisticated critique of our coverage on this controversial issue.

While the U.S. Treasury does indeed control the printing of hard currency in America, Bianco says we goofed by omitting the realities of the Fed's electronic printing press.

"The ability of the Fed to increase the amount of money in banks' reserve accounts; that's what most people mean when they talk about money printing and that's under the direction of the Fed," Bianco says.

All U.S. banks must keep a certain percentage of their assets on reserve with the Fed, in order to insure a margin of safety and so they can access the Fed's lending facility in times of crisis. Back in 2008, Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) converted to bank holding companies for this very reason.

The Fed can try to stimulate or restrict bank lending by either raising or lowering the amount of money banks are required to keep on reserve, respectively. This seems pretty straightforward. But "the Fed has the ability to go in and just change the number on [banks'] reserve accounts" -- literally creating money electronically by changing the amount of money in reserve accounts, Bianco notes.

"If you or I did that it would be fraud, it would be counterfeiting and we'd go to jail," he quips. "But when the Fed does it, it's sophisticated monetary policy."

Quantitative easing (QE) is one way in which the Fed prints money, Bianco says, suggesting the Fed "pays" for securities owned by banks by just changing the amount of money in their reserve accounts.

"We live in a fractional banking system," he says. "When banks have more reserves and ability to lend that is a form of money creation."

According to the minutes of the Fed's January meeting, released this week, some FOMC members are keen to do more of it.

"A few participants' assessments of appropriate monetary policy incorporated additional purchases of longer-term securities in 2012, and a number of participants indicated that they remained open to a consideration of additional asset purchases if the economic outlook deteriorated," the minutes said.

Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @aarontask or email him at altask@yahoo.com

 
  • Tom  •  Easton, United States  •  2 months ago
    The biggest advocate of more "money printing" is the Fed President of the NY Bank. His managers (the board of the NY Fed Bank) are Wall Street Presidents themselves. Talk about a HUGE conflict of interest. The media fails to point this out because they are controlled as well. Wake up people! You are being scammed.
    • i 2 months ago
      And tied to the news media who does not report news but treats it as NEWS BY OMISSION. NEWS BY SPIN. NEWS BY HALF STORIES. Repeat it enough times I guess we will believe it as truth.
    • Sam Mates 2 months ago
      It is not just the FED who creates money. ALL banks create money when they make loans. Google for "HOW DO BANKS CREATE MONEY" to understand how deep the rabbit hole goes. When you borrow, you are paying interest for money that banks create out of thin air. It is checkbook money. That is why money supply can deflate when borrowing stops.
    • Jo 2 months ago
      Each one of them jerk each others off. That is how they get the idea. Everytime they make a mess with their business dealings it's the taxpayers. It is always a win win situation for them. That is why in this country the only people that does not go to prison most of the time is the people that commits crime in a BIG TIME WAY.
  • Les  •  2 months ago
    And few see a problem with this. Let's remember, Dick Fuld, while running Lehman into the ground was also on the board of directors on the NY Fed with turbo tax Timmy.
    • rollingklouds 2 months ago
      What happened to $400 billion of Lehman (google it) that seems to have disappeared completely? -Just before they went belly up!
    • mayslakeman 2 months ago
      Lotta good that did for Fuld.
  • Robert  •  Stockton, United States  •  2 months ago
    The Fed was started by 13 families, which made 13 banks across the US, they own the US.
    • Xenobia Zentron 2 months ago
      FACT: the FED was created on December 23, 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907. Stop believing every right wing viral e-mail you get.
    • Kanilure 2 months ago
      Wait a minute! That would be cool, 13, 13, and 13. Must be the Fed's lucky number and why it is so popular!
    • Steve D 2 months ago
      You are incorrect Xenobia, read the Creature of Jeckyl island and stop beliving every left wing email YOU get my friend.
  • W  •  2 months ago
    Fact: Commercial Banks own all the stock of the FED and therefore own the FED. Fact: The Fed uses quantitative easy (purchasing bank assets) to inflate the economy (create money). Fact: this will eventually cause inflation. It hasn't hurt much yet, because of the 20% unemployment rate in the country (that's right-20%-the government numbers are skewed to not include those unemployed who gave up looking and those that are way underemployed). Fact: when inflation starts to increase in a substantial way, the FED will reverse course and start selling (FOMC function). The lack of interest in buying these assets will force the price down and the rate up (You will know this is happening when you notice 5,10,20 and 30 year Government Treasury Bonds yields going up sharply. Fact: this will cause a general rise in interest rates throughout the economy-car loans, credit card loans, mortgage loan interest will all go up sharply. Fact: The FED is trying to boost the economy in order to increase employment. Unfortunately, this must come at the expense of dollar devaluation. Currency loses value when it is out of proportion to production and productivity. Tightening the money supply (like FED Chairman Volcker did in the early 1980's caused a serious recession (business goes down overall) but had the intended effect of taking inflation (wild price increases) out of the equation. Once that happened, he eased up just right and the recession turned into a major boom. Fed Chairman Greenspan gamed the system by artificially keeping rates low in the 1990s up until 2003 so as to keep the Reagan -Clinton boom going. Unfortunately, he forgot how to turn off the spigot and flooded the economy with so much cheap money that everyone decided they were rich and invested in real estate until the big bust. Of course, the FED was aided by Congress's effort to give people something for nothing, the Big Wall Street Banks greed (they just went along to get rich), and foolish people who dreamed they could own a house without a down payment and or sufficient income to support the payment. That's my opinion, anyway. What's yours?
    • H_preston 2 months ago
      Refreshing to hear someone awake and spreading the knowledge...unfortunately it will fall on deaf ears for the most part. All they will hear is unemployment and jobs, the tweaking part doesn't interest them.
    • MF 2 months ago
      The Fed will be able to control inflation when the time comes, because it's not really buying bonds...it's engaging in repo's. A repo can be thought of as a term loan secured by a bond or note. Once the term is up, the cash comes back and the debt returned to it's owner. The cash goes back where it came from, controlling inflation. I just don't see what the fuss is about.

      Pushing bonds back to their owners will cause interest rates to increase, but consider that we currently have the lowest interest rates in modern history. It can't last forever, and normalizing rates will mean a return to normal. I don't see fed activities having much effect at all on mortgage rates or home ownership, which was the key to the boom years. There reason is that the fed only influences short term rates, but mortgage rates are more related to things like the 10 yr treasury rate, LIBOR, and fiscal policy than to the Fed discount rate.

      "Operation Twist" may have a slight effect on mortgage rates, but I don't see this as being especially problematic. Its inflationary impact will be mopped up by real estate, which is the one sector which is still under deflationary pressure. My feeling is that there are some pretty good heads at the Fed. Their actions may not be completely transparent, because operating as the "unseen hand" is inconsistent with full disclosure. Those who want to read nefarious motivation can do so, but I really think that they're doing just fine.
    • Void 2 months ago
      funny stuff... mostly true. however.. can you show me ANY documentation PROVING who owns 100% of the federal reserve shares... Hell I'll settle for 10% of the owning share holder names.. give me the info! give me the truth! I love it.. most people hate and are scared of the truth. I love it like any human should.
  • Ken  •  Phoenix, United States  •  2 months ago
    Our recent attempt to answer this seemingly simple question prompted a torrent of comments, much of it negative and unfit for publication…TRANSLATION………Our last attempt to creatively deceive the yahoo audience failed most of you people see through the ruse so we here at the office of propaganda will try to create more distractions to keep your minds off whats really going on!
  • Ryan  •  2 months ago
    Yes! Vote Ron Paul, end the FED! End a terrible system that exploits the working class!
  • JW  •  2 months ago
    Who actually owns the Federal Reserve Bank ?
    Who actually gets all the interest that we Americans pay on the trillion of dollars our government is in debt to the Fed ?
    Can some one answer this question?
    • Peter Katz 2 months ago
      Criminals.
    • enslaved 2 months ago
      The Fed. was started by wealthy business owners to protect their money and control the flow of money throughout the banking system. There was no FDIC back then to protect against losses.
    • C 2 months ago
      Yeah, it's owned by secret private investors. And we are the suckers.

      And @2012 Fix it, you should look into the FDIC a little more. It too is a HUGE fraud. Go to their website and you will find instructions for banks as to how to create collateralized debt obligations from credit card debt. They are doing the same thing with credit card debt that banks did with mortgages. Read "The Creature From Jeckyl Island".
  • Chris  •  Surfside, United States  •  2 months ago
    The US public are by and large a bunch of friggin idiots. They prefer their American Idol and Playstation to a democracy which is a government elected by the people to serve the people. Just look at voter turn out. It is a joke. Lets face it we are getting what we deserve for being clueless and careless with our responsibilities as citizens in a democrtic society.

    Our founding fathers and the people that fought for our liberty in the 1700's must be throruoghly digusted. Maybe one day it will get so bad that people will put down their Playstations and turn off their 3D TV's and march in the streets of DC. Lets only hope.

    Until then just get used to being screwed by big government and the self serving interests of our politicians. The fact that many young people support Ron Paul indicates that maybe there is some hope for the next generation. After all we are the most indebted nation in the history of mankind. That doesn't sound like it will end well does it? Way to go Republicans and Democrats alike.
  • Silver Dollar  •  Mississauga, Canada  •  2 months ago
    The Fed is a privatley owned company and has nothing to do with the Govt
  • Ms. Mac  •  Dallas, United States  •  2 months ago
    Every additional dollar added to the money supply DILUTES the value of every other dollar in the total supply....if we continue doing this, big enough, long enough...we drive inflation...because it will take more dollars to purchase goods and services because the value of the dollar is declining. HELLO????
    Combine that with reduced and flat incomes for the majority of Americans that still have a job, how are people going to buy durable goods and services, buy homes, buy cars if their discretionary income is negative, and they have NO ACCESS to credit? The banks are NOT lending to average people. They are not writing mortgages for average people wanting to buy even modest homes. Our economy is crippled, and small business is cash flow strangled. The big banks are killing our economy with the Feds help!
  • Bob_081690  •  2 months ago
    Even though the treasury physically prints the money, it is under the direction of the FED. That why all of your dollar bills say "FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE." How is that so darn difficult to understand?
  • DH  •  Austin, United States  •  2 months ago
    Now that makes more sense, END the fed PERIOD!!!
  • na  •  Orlando, United States  •  2 months ago
    Aaron, you got so much negative feedback from your earlier video where you said the Fed doesnt print money. Very funny.
    Printing money to everyone else means expanding supply of money. Electronic or paper its an expansion of money supply.
    Give it up, your interpretation was wrong then and now. Putting ink onto paper is not printing money with out the Fed increasing the money supply.
  • Bansheez  •  Flagstaff, United States  •  2 months ago
    When the dollar losses it's world reserve currency status, there's going to be a real wake up call to the American peoples standard of living. And it ain't going to be good.
  • buzzin fly  •  2 months ago
    Does the Fed print....DAH
    Yes they do from thin air, nothing to back it, and then, they sell to us with interest. What a racket. Another is the fed has foreign-ownership and it prints money. Read what the Constitution says about that
  • GirlsGoneGyno  •  2 months ago
    Ron Paul...he wants to end this FRAUD!
  • Junior and Senior  •  Albuquerque, United States  •  2 months ago
    I'd rather see notes printed by the U.S Treasury, 1 note = 1 bond
    No wonder Ron Paul ask where's the bailout billions? Where? Paying illegal drug dealers, illegal weapong dealers.
    The citizens of U.S.A better do something, because the FED will turn U.S the next Greece.
    By the way, Alan Greenspans favors the return of Gold Standard
    Before I leave, my support to Ron Paul.
    Viva Estados Unidos de Norte America!
  • Jason  •  Houston, United States  •  2 months ago
    I traded in my private banker dollars for a bag of crushed aluminum cans. Turns out they are worth more...who knew?
  • Jason UU  •  2 months ago
    This is a spin article. The Fed controls the money supply. They are the ones that CHOOSE to print more money. The control the warehouse that prints it. It is all part of the same group of private banks and pseudo federal entities.
  • tom  •  Chicago, United States  •  2 months ago
    Its not Federal,,and no reserve,,but it does have an endles inkwell

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