Control the Printer, Control the Country
The hidden truth behind Trump’s obsession with Jerome Powell.
I recently watched Karoline Leavitt’s press conference where she held up Trump’s handwritten note to Jerome Powell, demanding lower interest rates and blaming Powell for costing the U.S. a fortune.
It made me pause. Who is Jerome Powell? What is the Federal Reserve exactly?
And why does Trump keep getting so mad at the guy?
I started pulling the thread, went for a deep dive, and ten books later (see the full list at the end), here’s the big thing I learned:
Whoever controls the money printer controls the country.
1. What’s the Gold Standard, and Why Did We Leave It?
In the beginning, dollars were tied to gold. Sounds smart, right? You could literally exchange a $20 bill for a set amount of gold at a bank. That meant the government couldn’t just print money, unless they had that certain amount of gold to back it up. But as the President/Congress began to want more money to spend, they began to devise ways to “cheat” the standard.
In 1933, during the Great Depression, FDR made it illegal for Americans to own gold (this actually happened). You had to turn it in, or face fines and jail time. Then, once the government had confiscated everyone’s gold, he changed the price of gold from $20.67 to $35 an ounce. They stole the gold, then instantly revalued it for a 70% gain. This was inflation by manipulation, not printing — and it proved that even the gold standard wasn’t safe from political games.
Over time the Gold Standard’s death became final around the world as more nations embraced money printing:
First, Britain ditched it during World War I (did not want to raise taxes). Then The U.S. confiscated gold during the Great Depression and World War II (Bonds were not enough). It was as if each war or crisis made it harder to keep the gold promise until Nixon finally severed the link entirely completely moving off the Gold Standard in 1971 so he could pay for the Vietnam War and our expanded social programs (without raising taxes even higher).
Gold was honest. But gold was inconvenient. And governments, when given the option between honesty and convenience, choose convenience every time.
2. The Federal Reserve
The Fed was created in 1913 to help prevent banking crises and keep the economy stable. But it has evolved over time to have a much greater role (especially once the gold standard was abandoned). Today, the Fed controls how much money flows through the system and how easy it is to borrow— that may not sound like much but that affects everything.
When the Fed Hits the Gas
When the Fed wants to boost the economy, it does two main things:
It lowers interest rates which makes borrowing cheaper:
Credit card rates drop.
Mortgage payments shrink.
Businesses can take out loans more easily.
That sounds great and for a while, it feels great. People borrow more, spend more, invest more, and take on more debt. But here’s the catch: low interest rates also punish saving. If your bank is only offering 0.5% interest, you’re basically losing money to inflation by keeping it in the bank.
So what do people do? They chase riskier returns, stocks, real estate, crypto, even speculative startups, anything that might grow faster than 0.5%. That’s how bubbles form. Not everything is worth investing in, but when saving is punished, risk looks like the only option. Think housing in 2008.
It creates new money through something called Quantitative Easing (QE)
Here’s how that works in plain English:
The U.S. Treasury needs money, so it issues a bond (basically an IOU) that says, “Lend us money now, we’ll pay you back later with interest.”
Big banks buy that bond. Why? Because it’s a safe investment and they can earn a small return.
Then, the Federal Reserve buys the bond from the bank. But instead of using money it already has, the Fed just types (prints) new money into the bank’s account. That’s it. New money is created.
The government borrowed. The bank got paid. And the Fed created brand-new, made-up money into the economy. Making total number of dollars in the economy greater.
That’s Quantitative Easing. It sounds technical, but it’s really just this:
“The Fed bought government debt with money it created out of thin air.”
And here’s the wild part: after the Fed buys the bond, it can just sit on it forever. Which means, in effect, we borrowed from ourselves… and erased the debt.
The low interest rates and QE floods the economy with money. But the amount of stuff to buy: houses, cars, groceries, services cannot magically increase. So now you have more money chasing the same amount of goods. That’s when prices go up. That’s inflation.
It’s like handing everyone at an auction $1,000 and expecting the price to stay normally low. The items haven’t changed but everyone can bid higher. Same supply, more demand, higher prices.
Your old dollars can’t buy what they used to buy. That’s inflation. And that’s how the Fed quietly taxes your savings without ever going through Congress.
When the Fed Slams the Brakes
On the other hand, when the Fed wants to slow things down (and get yelled at by the President), it does two main things:
Raises interest rates which makes borrowing more expensive:
Loans cost more.
Credit card rates go up.
Mortgages become less affordable.
People and businesses stop spending as freely.
Starts selling off the assets it bought during QE like U.S. government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.
This is called Quantitative Tightening (QT). When the Fed sells those bonds, it takes cash out of the economy, buyers pay the Fed, and that money disappears from circulation. It’s like the Fed is vacuuming dollars out of the system.
3. Trump vs. Powell: The Fight Over the Throne
Here’s where things get good.
During Trump’s campaign and presidency, he pushed for low interest rates to fuel economic growth. (Biden did the same) Low rates mean booming markets, cheap loans, more jobs, and happy voters. It’s political gold. But cheap money comes with a cost: it overheats the economy, drives up prices, and eventually leads to inflation.
That’s when the Fed is supposed to step in and raise rates to cool things down. But raising rates hurts. It slows growth, drives down the stock market, and can lead to layoffs. Politically, it’s poison. And that’s exactly what Jerome Powell (Trump’s own appointee) has started doing.
He raised rates to keep inflation in check, and Trump hated it. He tweeted. He ranted. He even asked if he could fire Powell. Because in that moment, Trump realized something uncomfortable: the most powerful man in the country might be the one he couldn’t control, the guy who runs the printer.
This is the cycle. Presidents campaign against inflation, then beg for cheap money once elected. No one wants to take the medicine. Everyone hopes the bubble doesn’t burst on their watch. (In fairness, no modern president, left or right, has chosen the pain of long-term discipline over the sugar rush of cheap money)
The Fed Became the Economy.
For the last 25 years, every time something cracked (dot-com bubble, housing crash, COVID) the public and the president demanded action. And each time the Fed stepped in with the same tool: Print money. Lower rates. Bail it out.
Between 2008 and 2022, the Fed helped expand the money supply by over $14 trillion more than doubling all the dollars that had ever existed up to 2007 (read that again). Over $8 trillion was created in just the two years following COVID alone. That’s not capitalism. That’s central bank life support. We got addicted to easy money. At one point, inflation hit 9.1%, the highest in over 40 years. At that rate, your savings account would lose half its value through an inflation tax in just over 7 years.
Yes, inflation at that rate would cost you HALF of what you earned every 7 years.
4. Our National Addiction to Easy Money
Here’s the deeper problem: America has grown accustomed to spending more than it earns. And it has for decades. The government spends more than it takes in, so it borrows to fill the gap. Then it borrows again to pay off the last loan. But because they repay you in dollars that buy less, they’re repaying you with something cheaper than what they borrowed.
Essentially, the government borrows $10 from you today. And today that $10 buys a full combo meal — burger, fries, and a drink.
But they don’t pay you back until later after they’ve inflated the dollar so much that by then, $10 + $2 in interest only buys the drink. You would need $25 to get that combo meal again. They borrowed real value from you today and repaid you with weaker dollars tomorrow.
The government banks on inflation because it helps erase its debt while making everyone it owes a little bit poorer. Cutting spending costs votes. So instead, they quietly inflate the debt away and hope no one notices.
5. What This Means for You
You don’t need to be an economist to understand this: If we don’t stop spending more than we earn, as individuals and as a nation, we’re heading toward a cliff.
At the end of this road, we’ll face a brutal choice:
Inflate the dollar even further into worthlessness to pay off our debt (hyper inflation)
Or default and destroy all trust in our economy’s ability to pay its debt (market crash, dollar tanks)
Both are ugly. Both hurt the poor first. The only solution?
Adults willing to tell the truth:
Admit we cannot afford the budget we’ve set.
Return to balanced budgets and money tied to a standard.
Make hard choices (entitlements, military, debt).
Endure some short term pain for long term stability and financial health.
Because, if the printer keeps running it will ultimately be your money that burns.
- Josh
PS: Why Some People Love Bitcoin
Now you can also see why some are enticed by Bitcoin. In a world of money printing, Bitcoin provides:
An asset no government can print more of it.
The supply is capped at 21 million.
It’s not controlled by a central bank.
It’s hard to seize and track.
They see it as digital gold, a way to opt out of the system. It’s not perfect. It’s volatile. It’s early. But it’s a protest against inflation and manipulation.
Excellent explanation! And knowing that the Fed Res is a private bank (not owned or managed by the gov't) makes the issue all the more infuriating.