this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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This really only applies to countries that can exert their will on the global economy. If a country like Venezuela, South Africa, etc tries to just print money, their currency will be devalued and become worthless. Zimbabwe is probably a good modern example of this.
I don’t think that’s entirely accurate, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to address it directly. Instead I’ll quote from Michael Hudson’s book J is for Junk Economics.
I’ll add that, if a country has relatively self-sufficient domestic production to provide for its own people, then I don’t think foreign exchange rates would be so impactful.
So while it is true that you can’t simply print infinite money (without taxing that money back out of the system), it is so regardless of how large & powerful a country is.