[gph1]

Yes, the Federal Reserve creates the electronic credits that it uses to purchase the bonds. But this is not "money printing" in any meaningful economic sense because it its just swapping one government liability for another one. There is no functional difference from the govt's persepctive between a reserve deposit and a treasury bond other than the term structure and the fact that the treasury bonds pay interest.

In fact, you could argue that QE ultimately reduces private sector income because it eliminates this interest income.