Why don't governments print more money to solve specific problems?

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I kill Bunnies

I kill Bunnies

I kill Bunnies

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The UK has a NHS on its knees, Rail and water companies failing badly and a host of other problems. But neither the Tories or Labour are suggesting printing large amounts of money (such as done for the 2008 crash or COVID) to fix these problems. Why is this?

Typically the argument against printing money is that it leads to hyper inflation and currencies crash, usually some banana republic in the 70's etc...is used as evidence for this.

But what is the risk where the printed money is used specifically for fixing one- off problems like those faced in the UK? Surely the net effect would be beneficial if applied with focus and discipline?
 
Printing money is an artificial bodge for addressing economic problems. It does nothing to improve the actual economy, or to improve society. Printing money causes currency to devalue in real terms, increasing the real cost of goods, and this impacts the poorest in society most.

The results of printing money are economic underperformance and increased inequality. Citizens should reject money printing as a "fix" for economic woes, because it is a false fix.
 
I kill Bunnies said:
The UK has a NHS on its knees, Rail and water companies failing badly and a host of other problems. But neither the Tories or Labour are suggesting printing large amounts of money (such as done for the 2008 crash or COVID) to fix these problems. Why is this?
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Because they've done it already and it does nothing to address the fundamental economic problems.
 
As above, but money supply isn't the underlying problem, it's the distribution. Sure in a world of infinite currency keeping its value, it would fix the issues eventually. The NHS suffers from having to many parts being private, private is a concept that is there to primarily extract wealth. Then there's the people who are in positions of power within the NHS who are primarily interested in themselves. There's too many moving parts to adequately and quickly address, which again, the people who can make the changes, won't. Don't bite the hand that feeds you is the attitude of such people.
 
A currency only has any value because of the confidence in it maintaining that value. Printing money gives it less value.
 
I kill Bunnies said:
But where was the significant devaluation of currency and hyper inflation when we did it before?
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Did you not see the pound tank against the dollar and euro? Granted that wasn't the only factor, but the pound used to go a lot further with $/€ than today.
 
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just look up the Weimar Republic and post WW1 economy to see what happens when you print more and more money. supposedly by November 1923, 42 billion marks were worth the equivalent of one American cent.
 
The argument is usually that printing money for 1 thing leads to government printing money for the next thing, and the next thing, and then it becomes inflationary. That being said, when it was done to bail out the banks. None of the banks were very vocal about moral hazard...
 
Semple said:
Did you not see the pound tank against the dollar and euro? Granted that wasn't the only factor, but the pound used to go a lot further with $/€ than today.
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The US which utilised even more QE than we did, which gave oxygen to their economy and saw it streak away from the performance of the UK and Europe over the past decade and a half?
 
Plus inflation/currency devaluation and the consequential higher interest rates typically hit the poorest in society hardest.

Also, Throwing money at an issue won’t necessarily fix it!
 
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cheesyboy said:
The US which utilised even more QE than we did, which gave oxygen to their economy and saw it streak away from the performance of the UK and Europe over the past decade and a half?
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The USA is in the unique position of being the world reserve currency and can export its inflation to other countries quite easily. Not really comparable to the pound or euro at all.
 
I kill Bunnies said:
But what is the risk where the printed money is used specifically for fixing one- off problems like those faced in the UK? Surely the net effect would be beneficial if applied with focus and discipline?
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You can't really do this - because one way or another the money goes into the economy. There are various ways to claw it back but that causes problems of its own.
 
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