Oddbean new post about | logout
 Hm, I just realized, this question only applied to non-fiat money. For fiat it‘s clear: someone has all the money, she just didn‘t print it yet. 
 Much to the detriment of the fake news Bit-cons use to appeal to peasants, central banks cannot print money just willy nilly. In Zimbabwe maybe, not in a civilized country.

There are rules there, the most important one is that "money is lent into existence" meaning freshly printed money is handed out as a loan, not a free gift.

Because loans can be demanded to be paid back and as such reduce the money supply. The interest rate on those loans also limits the amount of money borrowed and as such, printed.