We’re not making this up!  Though the “printing press” is  more metaphor than physical reality with respect to monetary policy, this news couldn’t be more timely!  To understand how the Fed electronically “prints” money click here. Here’s the money quote:

“A central bank implements QE by first crediting its own account with money it has created ex nihilo (“out of nothing”).^[1] It then purchases financial assets, including government bonds, mortgage-backed securities and corporate bonds, from banks and other financial institutions in a process referred to as open market operations. The purchases, by way of account deposits, give banks the excess reserves required for them to create new money, and thus a hopeful stimulation of the economy, by the process of deposit multiplication from increased lending in the fractional reserve banking system.”

Press Release

Release Date: October 1, 2010

For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced a delay in the issue date of the redesigned $100 note.  This new design incorporates cutting edge, anti-counterfeiting technologies and the Federal Reserve imposes strict quality controls to ensure that users of U.S. currency around the world receive the highest quality notes.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing manufactures Federal Reserve notes and has identified a problem with sporadic creasing of the paper during printing of the new $100 note, which was not apparent during extensive pre-production testing.  As a consequence, the Federal Reserve will not have sufficient inventories to begin distributing the new $100 notes as planned.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is working to resolve this problem, and the Federal Reserve Board will announce a new issue date for the redesigned $100 note as soon as possible. The originally scheduled issue date was February 10, 2011.