I just read a fairly interesting economic story related to a question many people wonder about: can countries print money themselves? The short answer is yes, but it’s not something they can do arbitrarily, printing as much as they want. To understand this issue clearly, I’d like to tell you about a typical case.

There was once a country called Zimbabwe. In the 1980s, it was a fairly developed nation. Zimbabwe’s economy at the time had a diverse structure: agriculture accounted for 12.2% of GDP, it had a high level of industrialization, which made it a typical industrial country in Africa. At that time, if people in Asia couldn’t go to the United States or Europe, they would quickly choose Zimbabwe as a place to settle. At a glance, Zimbabwe didn’t look any worse than other developed countries.

But everything changed in late 1997. Former soldiers took to the streets to protest, demanding that the government provide post-war subsidies. At that time, Zimbabwe’s central bank was carrying a large amount of debt. Instead of trying to reform the economy, Mugabe’s leadership believed the problem could be solved simply by printing money. He chose to print additional money to pay 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars to each former soldier.

At first, when the new money was issued, people felt richer. But what happened next was fairly predictable. Prices started to rise. The more money was printed, the less money people had to buy goods. Mugabe continued printing, believing it was the solution. The result was a vicious spiral of hyperinflation.

Look at the numbers to see just how brutal it was. In 1980, the exchange rate was only 0.678 Zimbabwe dollars per 1 US dollar. In 1997, it rose to 10 Zimbabwe dollars. By June 2002, 1 US dollar = 1,000 Zimbabwe dollars. In 2006, that figure was 500,000. Inflation rose from 55% in 2000 to 133% in 2004, then 586% in 2005, and finally reached a crazy 220,000% in the summer of 2008. By 2009, inflation had become beyond calculation—an infinite number of zeros. The new government announced the figure as 5,000,000,000,000% after Mugabe was overthrown.

How extreme was it in reality? In 2009, to buy a loaf of bread, people in Zimbabwe had to drag a cart pulled by oxen to transport money. A simple loaf of bread required a quantity of banknotes so heavy it couldn’t be carried in your hands. This is exactly the consequence of reckless money printing.

But why did this happen? To answer whether countries can print money themselves, I need to explain the basic principle. The nature of money is also a kind of commodity. Like any other commodity, money’s value is determined by the market based on supply and demand. When the money supply is too large, the price of money falls. When the supply is too small, the price of money rises.

Imagine a small village with 100,000 banknotes in circulation. Everything is balanced, and people can buy and sell normally. But if the village chief secretly prints another 100,000 notes and hands them out to some people, what will happen? At first, those who receive the new money feel richer and buy more. But since the amount of goods in the village remains the same, demand increases while supply does not, so prices rise. Then people realize their money has lost value, and they can’t buy as much as before. The village chief continues printing money, believing it’s the solution. This loop repeats until people no longer trust the money.

So can countries print money themselves? The answer is yes. Every modern country has a central bank with the power to print money. But that power is not unlimited. A country may be able to print money, but it must keep a balance between the money supply and real economic demand. If it prints too much, inflation rises, the currency loses value, and in the end the whole country will face difficulties like Zimbabwe.

There is a special case: Hoa Kỳ—the United States. Why can the US print more money than other countries? Because the US dollar is used around the world. When the US prints money, the consequences don’t only affect the US—they affect the entire world. The US can distribute dollars through defense spending and public expenditure, and from there this flow of money circulates across the globe. This approach is called quantitative easing. In this way, the US prints money and has the world pay for it, so wealth flows back to the US.

However, even the US cannot print money without limit. If it prints too much, the dollar will depreciate, global inflation will occur, and ultimately the US itself will run into trouble as well. The US prints money only within a range that global inflation can tolerate. That’s why, even though the US holds the power to print money for the entire world to spend, it is still the country with the highest national debt in the world.

The Zimbabwe story is a lesson about what happens when a country abuses its power to print money. It shows that countries can print money themselves, but not to solve every economic problem. Printing money is a monetary tool, not a miracle cure. When used incorrectly, it leads to economic disaster, just as we saw in Zimbabwe. This lesson still holds value today as we observe the monetary policies of countries around the world.