Satan's 19th-Century Bank Note (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: Satan's 19th-Century Bank Note (2017)

#11

Post by IAmBroom » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 12:30 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #7

IAmBroom wrote: post #4

This interesting history lesson makes me wonder: Has there ever been a (not-thoroughly corrupt and dictatorial) government that literally printed money to solve their problems? It's a common metaphor, but it's just a simpleminded metaphor. The US Treasury printing has literally nothing to do with inflation (if it's printing adequate amounts of replacement bills). No US government account is paid with fresh bills, hot…

Ray Dalio explains this history in his books "How Countries Go Broke" and "Big Debt Crises". His theory is that governments have a debt cycle, and printing money is just one point in that cycle.

You're just parroting the phrase "printing money". I'm asking if governments ever literally do (except in extremely defective examples).

Re: Satan's 19th-Century Bank Note (2017)

#12

Post by d4ng » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 12:48 PM UTC

IAmBroom wrote: post #4

This interesting history lesson makes me wonder: Has there ever been a (not-thoroughly corrupt and dictatorial) government that literally printed money to solve their problems? It's a common metaphor, but it's just a simpleminded metaphor. The US Treasury printing has literally nothing to do with inflation (if it's printing adequate amounts of replacement bills). No US government account is paid with fresh bills, hot…

Why does interest on bonds need to be paid by printing money? Can’t it be paid from tax revenue?

Re: Satan's 19th-Century Bank Note (2017)

#13

Post by IAmBroom » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

d4ng wrote: post #12

IAmBroom wrote: post #4

This interesting history lesson makes me wonder: Has there ever been a (not-thoroughly corrupt and dictatorial) government that literally printed money to solve their problems? It's a common metaphor, but it's just a simpleminded metaphor. The US Treasury printing has literally nothing to do with inflation (if it's printing adequate amounts of replacement bills). No US government account is paid with fresh bills, hot…

Why does interest on bonds need to be paid by printing money? Can’t it be paid from tax revenue?

Certainly, and I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

My point is: The printing of physical (fiat) bills are completely independent of increasing monetary supply. Always true in the US; probably always true in most instances.

Re: Satan's 19th-Century Bank Note (2017)

#14

Post by gwbas1c » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 7:21 PM UTC

IAmBroom wrote: post #11

gwbas1c wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ray Dalio explains this history in his books "How Countries Go Broke" and "Big Debt Crises". His theory is that governments have a debt cycle, and printing money is just one point in that cycle.

You're just parroting the phrase "printing money". I'm asking if governments ever literally do (except in extremely defective examples).

Yes, they do.

The first part of "Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith gives many historical examples.

And in Ray Dalio's book, he explains how the US government did it in the past, and will need to do it again in the future.

Re: Satan's 19th-Century Bank Note (2017)

#15

Post by hakfoo » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:16 AM UTC

The Bank of England was issuing currency as late as the 1950s that wouldn't look out of place in the 1750s.

It's interesting that they didn't rely more on state-of-the-art design and printing process technology, to make a poor-quality fake more difficult to pass off.