If the comparison is with 2008, the answer is that the "money" was created on different sides of the balance sheet for different purposes. (We all remember that banks are effectively statistically multiplexing asset cash against liability deposits, nu?)
2008 the Fed printed $2 trillion asset cash(M0) and used it to buy bad debt off the banks books, and put the debt in a runoff fund. No discernible impact on M2. (well, it stopped it imploding).
2020 Fed prints ~$4 trillion of liability deposits, and hands it out to all and sundry to pay their rents, and support the stock market.
M2 goes vertical. Which it has never done for the US in the last 100 odd years. So this time it will actually be different.
“Print” is a misnomer, as only the US Mint prints paper currency and mints metal coins which is a very tiny sliver of the M0 money supply.
So to rephrase what actually happens: “in 2008, the Federal Reserve decided to buy a notional amount of $2 trillion in bonds and debt securities, every time it bought some it created the same amount of new US dollars at the time of transaction which becomes owned by the seller. Increasing the money supply upon payment.”
Its primary mechanism for controlling the money supply and people’s behavior is by purchasing a predetermined amount and category of assets from people. Unless authorized by Congress to do something specific.
Congress does not usually touch the Federal Reserve Act, as the whole point of the Federal Reserve system was to remove politics from management of the money supply. But they obviously can and always could alter the Federal Reserve’s charter and in 2020 they let the Federal Reserve give money directly to individuals in some of the stimulus programs.
More about breaking down exactly how the Fed's digital dollar ledger updates actually result increasing the money supply.
Despite everyone knowing the "printer go brr" meme being just a colloquialism, I don't think people are really clear on what the reality is. It is Just-In-Time creation of dollars upon transaction.
2008 the Fed printed $2 trillion asset cash(M0) and used it to buy bad debt off the banks books, and put the debt in a runoff fund. No discernible impact on M2. (well, it stopped it imploding).
2020 Fed prints ~$4 trillion of liability deposits, and hands it out to all and sundry to pay their rents, and support the stock market.
M2 goes vertical. Which it has never done for the US in the last 100 odd years. So this time it will actually be different.