Why can't countries print more money to pay off debts?

As someone said in an answer above, it's not a stupid question at all but a really good one...The media and educational system do a terrible job at informing the public about the economics of countries and the political elites prefer it this way. They are deliberately misleading trying to make the public think that a nations 'debt' or a 'national debt' is like an individuals 'consumer debt' like when you or I don't have enough money to pay our rent or car payment debt...it's nothing like that.

The big difference is.....1. That an individual consumer like you and me are only 1 of billions of consumers who control an infinitesimally small amount of assets, so tiny that whatever any one of us has doesn't matter. Where there are only 172 countries (and only a few dozen big ones) and a few dozen central/ giant banks that in fact control just about all the worlds money and assets. 2. An individual human only lives a short time, you work for 30 years or so then get old and die. The people you got your consumer loans (debt) from want it to be paid before your gone. So, we individual humans have to pay our 'consumer' debt back. Nations however never die, they are eternal, they exist forever (or at least for 1000's of years like Greece) so in practice they never ever have to pay their national/ or public debt back, nor would it be logical or even desirable for them to do so. As long as they pay each year the premium and interest on the debt (about 1% of the total) to the rich investors who count on those payments and thereby finance world business with them, the public debt is 'never' paid, not in this generation, 10 generations ago, or 20 generations from now (nor would we want it to be, it's always furnished a main source of Capital for Capitalism)

So, you may ask what's the so called 'debt problem' the world is facing now?.....

The answer is...it's not really a 'debt problem' that's a misleading term.

The worlds nations in fact have about as much debt as usual (at times in history they've had much more). What they actually have now is.......a recession problem causing falling national incomes while debt remains a constant......... Each nation makes it's income on economic growth and the taxes it collects. Because of the world recession all the countries have had a lot less economic growth and have collected way less taxes than they planned, but their debt has remained the same. They may soon not be able to make those yearly tiny minimal payments that keeps the world economy always afloat. They could easily fix it by....raising taxes and slashing government spending....but that would cause the political elites to lose their jobs and get thrown from power by angry voters. They could.....easily fix it by....requiring the worlds few (50 or so) super rich central/ international banks to slash giant profits/ giant executive salaries for several years...but the bankers have said they won't stand for that.

So, the 2 groups around the world....bankers v politicians...shove the issue back n forth at each other...both not wanting to upset 'their' power/ their situation...both playing a game of delay...Till the world recession ends and nations economic growth and tax collection rise back to normal, ending the problem...'without'...either of them having to change.

But, as you can see...it has nothing to do with individual human 'consumer debt', consumer bankruptcy or anything of that sort.

P.S. as far as printing money...no it couldn't help...it's not about a money shortage. And money is and always has been 'relative' to the 'goods' in the economy (even when money was based on silly shiny metals). Suppose you have an economy with $100 of total money supply and have 10 goods in the economy....Each good would cost $10.

Suppose you increase the money supply to $200 and still have 10 goods...each good would cost $20...but besides a 'relative' numeral, your no better off and nothing has changed.

First of all, never think that your questions are stupid! Questions help you learn and therefore make you smarter! woot.

Inflation. At times like these it may sound very attractive because of the exact same reason you pointed out! To pay off debt! BUT, there's a catch, when you're constantly printing money, that means there is more money in circulation and when there is more money in circulation, the value of the dollar (or whatever nation's currency) plummets. Inflation also causes the cost of EVERYTHING to rise. Since everyone has more money, businesses can increase the cost of all goods and services!

Next, Greece. Yes, their economy is failing because of debt. BUT, Greece's government is based on socialism, which means everyone gets government benefits without having to pay. No one pays their taxes and the government just spends and spends. Thus, Greece's government has no money, unless they borrow and borrow.

In Europe is a thing called the European Union (EU), which essentially created the Euro within the continent of Europe so that all the countries' currency could be the same, therefore making trade simpler. Greece is a part of this union so Greece basically has no control on how many Euros are circulating in the economy. SO, Greece could just leave the euro. But what does that mean? No one knows for sure. In fact, there are several theories on this, I suggest you Google it.

Bonds. That is how nations repay their debts. Say China buys bonds from the U.S. meaning the U.S. gives China bonds in exchange for money. If China sold bonds to the U.S., then China would be receiving money from the U.S.

I really hope this helped!

The main difference between Greece and the US is that Greece doesn't control its currency--it can't print as many euros as it wishes, while the US can.

The way it works is that the treasuries of countries auction their debt and investors buy. When the money is due, the government pays back the lenders. This is all electronic now.

If your economy is not in a depression (Europe's and America's are) and plus absence a number of different factors, the more money you print, the higher the inflation gets. As a result of high indebtedness, many predict that the rate of inflation both in the US and Europe will be slightly higher in the coming years (that is they will print more money) to shrink the burden of debt more quickly. However, if you print too much money, inflation will run out of control. A fine balance is the key.

There would be so much money out there that you money would become worthless. Also, there is mounting debt so they would have to keep printing money every year until there was so much money that a hamburger would cost 100 dollars because there would be billions and billions of dollars printed. Anything only has value if there is little of it available. Say you want some shoes, what will be cheaper the limited edition shoes that they only make 1000 pairs of, or the ones that they make millions of pairs of? That is why they can't print money. @CatCrazy- If your money is worthless what did you use to buy your clothes with? Or your computer? If they could print money to make everyone rich wouldn't they do it? They don't because they can't. If money is worthless send me all of yours.

Printing money and finance the gap between revenue and expenditure( budget) is called Deficit Finance. Govt resort to this policy when the gap is manageable. Large amount of printing money will cause hyper inflation and people will loose confidence in the govt. machinery and there will be financial break down.

*Now in the context of International payment i.e. across the border the country need to transfer hard currency acceptable to receiving country or Gold or mix of two. Printing domestic money will not do.

that would cause hyperinflation which is why our founders told us only gold and silver is money and notes of credit is counterfeit.n An example of this would be Zimbabwe or Germany in 1913. There would be a world economic crisis, similar to 1929 except it would be an inflation problem instead of deflation

Can u guys (some of u) pls pay more attention to his qus? Pls avoid throwing everything you know about inflation straight on his face without first addressing the part when he said since newly created money is paid to the lender nation, those money wldn be circulating in the debtor nation isn it? Why will it still cause inflation? Im puzzled at this part as wll, thanks.

If you print more, then it starts to lose its value, inflation rises and so do the prices. In post-WW1 Germany money was so worthless, that children played with blocks of money and even thieves didn´t wanted to steal this pile of paper.

I've asked the same question, I think she said it would cause more dept, or it wouldn't change anything.

1 of the main attributes of money is that it is scarce: If you just print more it become too freely avalible and therefore loses its value.