Sunday, May 17, 2020: Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, said in an interview with 60 Minutes (the oldest and most-watched newsmagazine on television), that the Federal Reserve simply prints money digitally and will continue to do so as long as needed.
During the interview, Powell said the Fed can print U.S. dollars digitally in addition to creating physical bills:
"As a central bank, we have the ability to create money digitally. And we do that by buying Treasury Bills or bonds for other government guaranteed securities. And that actually increases the money supply. We also print actual currency and we distribute that through the Federal Reserve banks."
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the Fed has already cut interest rates to near zero and offered more than $3 trillion in lending to banks, businesses, cities, and states.
With this in mind, Powell was asked whether or not the Fed’s printing ‘creating’ of money will continue during the pandemic or if they have already done all they can do.
In response, Powell said:
“Well, there is a lot more we can do. We're not out of ammunition by a long shot. No, there's, there's really no limit to what we can do with these lending programs that we have.”
Proving the case for Bitcoin?
While Bitcoin has a finite supply of 21 million, the Fed has an infinite supply of U.S dollars that can be printed at a moment's notice.
The monetary policy carried out by the Fed might help the economy and stock markets in the short term, but will negatively affect everyone else through the hidden taxation of inflation in the long term.
That said, many crypto enthusiasts are taking what Powell said to Twitter, reminding everyone that Bitcoin solves this inflationary issue with a better, more sound monetary policy.