I don’t get it. Just because they printed all this money, why are prices going up.
The money is busy demanding.
“Inflation is caused by too much money chasing after too few goods.”
― Milton Friedman
“Just because they printed all this money, why are prices going up.”
They printed a lot of money and prices are still going up.
All that money is out there. But products aren’t flowing. So the price for getting the products that ARE available will rise.
“Just because they printed all this money, why are prices going up.”
Well, you understand supply and demand right? It applies to money as well as goods and services. So if you print more money, all else being equal, then all the money in circulation is automatically worth less, since you have increased the supply of money without increasing the demand. When that money is worth less, the prices have to go up because you need more of this devalued money to match the value of the products you want to buy.
The exception to this is when the productivity of the economy is also increasing. That’s essentially the same as saying the demand for money is rising. In that case, you can print a certain amount of money without causing inflation. That’s obviously not the case in an economic downturn like we have right now.