How to create wealth out of nothing? Counterfeiting is one possibility. Unfortunately, it is illegal to do so. It also costs ink. Alchemy is another way. It requires knowhow. Besides, it requires material. Governments have found a solution: quantitative easing. It is completely free. It is even legal!
Printing money is a solution. But counterfeiting is illegal. Besides, printing money needs ink and paper. At one point, Zimbabwe ran out of money to print money. (Apparently, Zimbabwe ran out of ink for printing passports as well in 2006.)
Alchemy is another possibility. Unfortunately, alchemy requires knowledge; knowledge that not many people possess. (It occupied a lot of time by scientists, including Isaac Newton). Besides, alchemy is not cost-free. The material and the procedures required could be more costly than the end product.
Compared to counterfeiting and alchemy, Quantitative easing is much simpler. It needs nothing! All the government needs to do is to say that such money exists. The government can tell its people that this is the only way to keep the economy going. People have no choice but to accept it! In fact, consultation is not required. The more governments do it, the more acceptable it seems to the public.
The financial crisis in 2007-08 gave governments a licence to do all sorts of extraordinary things.
Governments aren't going to miss opportunities like this!
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Related: "What has government done with our money?"
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