cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/12591808

  • Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden's Chief Economist, faced difficulties explaining money's workings in a documentary or Finding The Money,' despite his role.
  • He stumbled through concepts, highlighting the confusion around government money printing and borrowing
  • Bernstein, who is head of the US Council of Economic Advisers, is not formally trained in economics and appeared bewildered in the clip
  • ped_xing [he/him]
    ·
    6 months ago

    After looking it up, it sounds like the cash part is pretty much economy-neutral. Banks essentially buy cash. If they have $100,000 and an empty ATM, they can turn that into $90,000 and an ATM with $10,000 in it. The actual thumb-on-the-scale-of-the-economy doesn't happen there, and it wouldn't make sense to have it happen there -- banks would beg everyone to empty out the ATMs so they could refill them with fresh hondos.