Printing Money Isn't What You Think It Is

Logosofia no Dia a Dia · Oct 12, 2026 · 27m

Every year the Fed orders billions of new banknotes, and every year headlines read it as money printing. But the print order is a maintenance schedule, not monetary policy — and the split between replacing worn-out notes and actually growing the money supply is a number the Fed doesn't publish. This episode walks through the whole physical life of cash: how the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the US Mint split the work, why a one dollar bill lasts 5.8 years while a hundred lasts 15, what happens to the 5,287 tons of shredded currency a year, and why Israel — with a fully sovereign…