An explorable · the money illusion

Can the government just print money to make us richer?

It sounds like a cheat code: the central bank can create money out of thin air. So why is anyone ever poor? Let's print some and watch what actually happens to a wallet — and a loaf of bread.

1Print money — drag the green slider up. Watch your wallet grow.

The takeaway will appear here once you've discovered it — keep dragging.

A simplified quantity-theory model (money is claims on goods; with goods fixed, more money just raises prices). Short-run, fresh money can give a temporary jobs boost when factories sit idle — that's the trade-off in the companion explorable — but it can't be sustained and doesn't make anyone durably richer, which is the lasting picture shown here.