Table stakes for discussing monetary policy is knowing the defintion of things like M2 and understanding it has nothing to do with "printing" assets as M2 primarily measures deposit accounts which are created by bank lending and destroyed by either the repayment of loans or households shifting their portfolio away from demand accounts and towards longer term financial sector liabilities such as commercial paper or mortgage bonds. The shape of this curve does not reflect policy choices by the government but rather is controlled by household portfolio balance choices.

I seriously doubt that the money was printed. It's all electronic nowadays.

There's so much confusion and cargo-culting around money, it would serve as well to use accurate language. The money was created, but not printed.

This is significant because "printing" evokes a picture of the money being distributed to people who then spend it, which is not quite the case here.

It makes no difference whether the money was printed or "created".

Actually, it makes an enormous difference. The supply of money that is created by banks can be increased and decreased through Fed operations. That means when inflation becomes a threat, the Fed can reduce the money supply, thereby reducing the money in circulation and reducing inflation risks.

Seriously, this is one of the Fed's primary tasks, to control inflation through monetary policy. It's sad how many people on HN fail to understand this.

It makes a huge difference because creating money follows regulations, "printing money" means you are ignoring those regulations.