Why can't the U.S. just print more money??

Question

Can anyone explain why can't we just print more money? If our economy is so bad why can't we just help it by printing more.

Answer 1

Look up inflation.

Answer 2

Because if they print more, it'll cause all money to lose value, which would cause inflation.  Basically, all prices would go up because money would be next to worthless.  Think Great Depression...

Answer 3

GERMANY IN THE 1920'S

Answer 4

BECAUSE THAT WILL ONLY CREATE EVEN MORE INFLATION!!!!!!!!!

Answer 5

Because then the value of the money will go down. Its like the diamond business. Diamonds are not scarce but only releasing a certain amount a year makes them more valuable because there are less to sell basically. Then people shell out a butt load of money for something that is worth way less. Besides who would work if all we had to do was print it up? Nothing would  get done and we would have nothing to spend it on. Just my opinion.

Answer 6

Printing more money will just make inflation skyrocket.

Example: You get paid 9 dollars an hour. You go to the store and buy a bag of chips for 2 dollars. Next week you get a raise and now get paid 10 dollars. All of a sudden, a bag of chips might cost 3 dollars. As people get paid more, companies charge more because they know you have more money in your pocket.

What you're suggesting actually happened after World War 1! Germany printed more money to get out of a depression and people literally had to bring wheel barrows full of money just to buy groceries. Kids played with bundles of money because it costed less than to buy blocks!

Answer 7

Because that causes something called INFLATION which is actually worse than a recession.  It means the more money you print the less value it actually retains.  

Answer 8

Basically, inflation.  The value of the U.S. Dollar has decreased a lot because of the current economy.  The more money we put out there, the less the dollar is worth and that hurts our economy more than it would help.

Answer 9

Because our printing machine has been stolen by BUSH.

Honestly, If we print more money it will cause inflation, u might need to pay $300 for a hamburger,can u imagine what it would be for a car then?.Dollar gets weak honey.

Answer 10

A little something called inflation. Print all the money you want and soon bread will cost $200.

Answer 11

good idea, makes sense cause its no longer backed by gold, we should just make everyone a billionaire

Answer 12

Because each dollar bill is backed by an amount of gold. If people printed more money, then the country's gold would mean less and less and each dollar would decrease in amount. What the country needs is more gold to back the paper, not more bills.

Answer 13

It devalues the current value of the money. If we print twice as much money, each dollar becomes worth 50 cents. Nothing is accomplished by doing this. You can read money and banking books to understand more about this.  

Answer 14

We have been practicing "easy money" policy at the expense of inflation through Open Market Operations (OMO).  OMO are different than printing money.  OMO target interest rates by buying and selling government bonds.  When the FED lowers interest rates, they are actually targeting interest rates buy buying government bonds and injecting money into the economy.

Do you know who the chairman of the FED is?  Do you know how he got his nickname "Helicopter Ben"?

Answer 15

...

No, paper needs to be BACKED by something.

Answer 16

Are you serious? You should read some books on how the economy functions, so you don't find yourself asking seemingly uninformed questions.  

Answer 17

it causes inflation which is really bad. like in zimbabwe they had up to like a 100billion dollar bill that couldn't even pay a bus fair because of hyperinflation

Answer 18

inflation will happen. which means money wont be worth anything

Answer 19

You really need to take an economics class! The United States is in the current problem because we are printing TOO MUCH MONEY! It's the basics of supply and demand. If there is a lot of money, it is worthless compared to other currencies because it is easy to get. If it is hard to get, people will pay more for one dollar thus making the dollar more valuble.

Here's an example for you to understand easily:First read this without then paranthesis, then add the paranthesis the second time around. ( Pretend American dollars are apples and in this case "money" is a foreign currency). If there is a marketplace (monetary exchange) and there are a lot of apples (dollars). The vendors (monetary exchange agents) are going to try to sell their apples (money) as cheap as possible so you buy their apples (dollars). If there are only a few apples (dollars) from each vendor (monetary exchange agent) and you know that they will be sold out soon, the vendors (monetary exchange agent) will raise the price because they know they can get more money (foreign currency).

Answer 20

because then the price of everything will just go up, its called inflation.. and it doesn't work.

Answer 21

inflation

Answer 22

no, It will cause inflation

Answer 23

That's what causes inflation.  If a community has one rock to share, that rock is very valuable.  If the same community has 1,000 rocks, rocks have 1/1,000th the value.

Answer 24

That would cause an inflation, thus making our economy worse and the value of the dollar lower.