[Mempho]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1) Consistently print more money than we destroy (on a federal level)

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes

[ QUOTE ]
2) If so, who gets the benefit of this extra money printed?

[/ QUOTE ]
The first users who receive the money before prices increase

[/ QUOTE ]

Wouldn't this dilute the money supply? Isn't money a relative instrument since, if I could go back in time with all of my cash, I could be one of the wealthier people in the my area? Since this would dilute the money supply, wouldn't it be akin to a hidden tax since it eventually increases the price of things? Is the government the one that is getting the benefit of this?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3) How do we keep track of the amount of digital money since most money now is not kept in hard currency?

[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure

[/ QUOTE ]

This would be nice to know, though.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
4) How do we find out how much money was created, either through printing or other creation, in the past year? Further, how do we know how much has been destroyed?

[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure. Mints might know.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would think this would be in a financial report somewhere but I have never found it when scouring the federal financial statements audited by the GAO.

EDIT: I must add that i find it deeply disturbing that we can talk about taxes and spending without an understanding of what money actually is.