Bernanke on Printing Money

"One myth that's out there is that what we're doing is printing money.

We're not printing money.

What are you buying Treasurys with?

The amount of currency in circulation is not changing.

The money supply is not changing in any significant way.

What we're doing is lowing interest rates by buying Treasury securities.

With what?

And by lowering interest rates, we hope to stimulate the economy to grow faster.

Why have interest rates gone up since the Fed started buying Treasurys?

So, the trick is to find the appropriate moment when to begin to unwind this policy.

What could happen when the Fed unwinds?

And that's what we're gonna do."

Ben Bernanke
Chairman of the Federal Reserve