Share this article

The Mirage of the Money Printer: Why the Fed Is More PR Than Policy, Feat. Jeffrey P. Snider

The meme is “money printer go brrr,” but according to this macro expert, central banks have almost no power to actually influence money itself.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:48 a.m. Published Jun 4, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
Angel Soler Gollonet/Shutterstock.com
Angel Soler Gollonet/Shutterstock.com

The meme is “money printer go brrr,” but according to this macro expert, central banks have almost no power to actually influence money itself.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica, iHeartRadio or RSS.

This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace.

The conventional wisdom is that central banks are the most important economic actors in the world. Markets hang on their every word.

Yet, what if that power has less to do with actual monetary policy and more to do with how the performance of that policy creates a self-fulfilling prophecy as market actors respond to media coverage?

See also: 5 Numbers That Tell the Story of Markets Right Now

Jeff Snider is the head of global research at Alhambra Investments. In this conversation, he and NLW explore:

  • How the Fed lost the ability to even determine what the money supply is
  • How the financialization in the 1980s exacerbated monetary confusion
  • Why the most important force in the global economy isn’t central banks but the eurodollar and shadow banking system
  • How the eurodollar and shadow banking sector creates a drag on real economic growth
  • Why the conventional wisdom and “central bank savior” narrative around 2008 was dead wrong
  • The problem with “survivor’s euphoria.”
  • Why “money printer go brr” is actually a flood myth.

See also: Why a Strong Dollar Is Bad for the US and Bad for the World, Feat. Lyn Alden

For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica, iHeartRadio or RSS.

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

What to know:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

State Street and Galaxy to Launch Tokenized Liquidity Fund on Solana in 2026

State Street building in London (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

The fund will run on Solana at launch and use PYUSD.

What to know:

  • State Street and Galaxy plan to launch SWEEP in early 2026, using PYUSD for around-the-clock investor flows on Solana.
  • Ondo Finance committed about $200 million to seed the tokenized liquidity fund, which will later expand to other chains.
  • The firms say the product brings traditional cash-management tools onto public blockchains for qualified institutions.