Does the Fed Print Money?

So, the Fed is printing money is often misstated. So first of all, the Fed doesn't print money. The Fed orders money from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which is the government's printer. Generally when you hear that the Fed is printing more money, they're talking about some policy decision that's taking place here, generally through monetary policy. It's a different process, essentially they're talking about liquidity in the market, not about the physical currency itself. So, the physical currency is literally decisions that we make internally at the operations level about what we need to meet demand from banks. Banks in turn are getting information from their customers in terms of what they're ordering, when they're ordering it, and then they order from the Fed when they need more.