> Now this argument wouldn't apply if it was possible for the average person to borrow money directly from the central bank at the same near-zero interest rate the banks pay, but that isn't the case.

Any time you take out a mortgage (at well below inflation by the way) you are obtaining new money "from the printer." The same is true any time you take out a loan.

This whole cantillon effect business is trotted out and flogged each time we mention economics on here but as far as I can tell, nobody has ever even attempted to quantify the impact of the cantillon effect.

> If I counterfeit a billion dollars and go out and spend it all, I've got more stuff and everyone else is a little bit poorer. If the central bank prints a bunch of money and lends it to its buddies in the finance industry for near-zero interest rates, they get more stuff and everyone else gets a little poorer.

This isn't actually true. Japan tripled its M2 money supply since 1990 but both CPI and housing CPI remain dead-ass flat. This model is way too simplistic. Which is why it was thrown out alongside the rest of Austrian economics.

Things that seem intuitive aren't always right.