Trump told Gary Cohn to 'print money' to lower the national debt, according to Bob Woodward's book

[Takket]

As a candidate, Donald Trump pledged to balance the federal budget and lower the national debt, promises that are proving difficult to keep.

Once he won, Trump considered an unusual approach that was quickly slapped down by his chief economic advisor, according to veteran journalist Bob Woodward's new book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," which went on sale Tuesday.

"Just run the presses — print money," Trump said, according to Woodward, during a discussion on the national debt with Gary Cohn, former director of the White House National Economic Council.

"You don't get to do it that way," Cohn said, according to Woodward. "We have huge deficits and they matter. The government doesn't keep a balance sheet like that."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/11/trump-once-considered-just-printing-money-to-lower-the-national-debt-woodward-reports.html

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Gary Cohn said the same on a

Bloomberg interview after he bailed on Trump.

[Recursion]

2. Monetizing (some of) the debt is probably a good idea

Trump's bigger problem is that he thinks the national debt being "lower" is in some intrinsic way a good thing, which shows he has no idea how the bond market works.

[BeyondGeography]

4. "You don't get to do it that way," and "former director" go hand-in-hand

Baby doesn’t like to be told no.

[HipChick]

5. Who is stopping him from doing it now?

[riverine]

10. The Federal Reserve can "print money" but is an independent agency and would refuse Trump's demands.

1- Trump can place his lackeys on the Fed but has failed to so far

2- for arcane reasons the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (part of the US Treasury Dept) technically prints the money but only with the authorization of the Fed

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. The reason the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank are seperate is not "arcane"

They serve different functions.

The Treasury is responsible, among other things, for issuing debt securities and those bonds are sold to cover deficit spending.

According to their own website, The Federal Reserve is responsible for;

Conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices.

Supervising and regulating banks and other important financial institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation's banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers.

Maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets.

Providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, U.S. financial institutions, and foreign official institutions, and playing a major role in operating and overseeing the nation's payments systems.

Lots of people like to say that the Fed "Creates money out of thin air". To the extent they provide credit, that is somewhat true, albeit a clumsy and pedestrian understanding. What is never mentioned is that they also destroy money (credit) INTO thin air as well.

So your statement "The Federal Reserve can "print money" is false. No, it can't. Not even a little bit.

[riverine]

17. Nope, you're dead wrong. When people like Trump use the term "print money" they are referring to

the 'ex nihilo' creation of money creation of money - which only the Fed can do as a function of a central bank. The Fed created/printed over $4 trillion to buy Treasuries during the QE cycle of the last recession. Many of the people who use this term are hard money crazies on the right but recently MMT loons on the left want to "print money" for social spending. Both of those philosophies collide with classical liberal economics.

So your statement "The Federal Reserve can "print money" is false. No, it can't. Not even a little bit.

As I mentioned, the actual printing is done by the BEP but that is not the subject. The actual subject is 'where does money come from?'

What is never mentioned is that they also destroy money (credit) INTO thin air as well.

So obviously you know about FOMC actions to contain inflation. How do you not know about the colloquial expression "print money"?


Now, if you're just being pedantic about the term "print money" then this has been a waste of time. Yes, the BEP does that as I originally said.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Okie Dokie.

[Voltaire2]

20. MMT doesn't propose "printing money".

any more than the neolib/neocon establishment, they just insist that the goal of all this debt we are creating ought to benefit the people in general instead of a small group of incredibly wealthy people.

Specifically our leaders have had no problem at all spending trillions on war, but faint at the thought of funding social programs.

[tanyev]

6. Trump then asked why stores wouldn't accept Monopoly money.

*not intended to be an actual quote

[D_Master81]

7. How can someone this stupid be president?

Seriously, you learn in high school econ that if money just keeps getting printed inflation gets out of control. Congrats Donald, the national debt is gone but it costs $57 for a loaf of bread.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Stupid voters.

God help us.

[Cosmocat]

18. YEP

HE isn't the problem

1/3 of the country being brain dead pods who would run cheese graters over their genitalia if Rush Limbaugh told them to GLEEFULLY embracing whatever lunacy their GOP orders them to AND roughly 1/3 of the country in a haze of "both siderism" that enables the right to push this country into one republican rat hole after another.

[keithbvadu2]

8. Idi Amin had the same theory of printing money.

[lpbk2713]

9. Reminds me of the old one liner ...

I can't be out of money. I still have more checks.

Trump is about this bright.

[jmowreader]

11. Help me out here

If a Democrat was president and proposed expanding the money supply in order to lower the national debt (which is what Trump really meant by "print money" ), Trump would be on his phone in a second tweeting that the president was incompetent at best and traitorous at worst for doing this. He would suggest impeachment first, then trial and imprisonment, and possibly execution, deportation, keelhauling or some other brutal penalty.

But Trump gets into office and wants the numbers to look better than they are? "Start printing money."

In the dictionary next to the word "hypocrite" is a picture of Trump.

[UTUSN]

12. K&R

[Flaleftist]

14. I remember asking if that could be a solution in elementary school. nt

[Vinca]

16. He's so dumb it's mind bending. And he refuses to learn a thing.

Tariffs DON'T go directly into the treasury.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

21. I'm as far as a business major as you'd ever find one.

But even I know what an absolute disaster that would be.

That’s basic high school learning right there. You can’t just print your way out of debt.