Quick! To the Money-copter!
"Keeping inflation stable at a moderately low level is important," said Fed chair Janet Yellen earlier this fall in a lecture at the University of Massachusetts, "because inflation that is high, excessively low, or unstable imposes significant costs on households and businesses."[But] the Federal Reserve has not always been successful in fulfilling the price stability element of its mandate."
"Acceptance of the idea that inflation is a monetary phenomenon has been accompanied by the lack of references to money in the conduct of monetary policy during its most successful period. The disappearance of money [supply aggregates] from the models used by economists is...more apparent than real...[But] nevertheless, there are real dangers in relegating money to this behind-the-scenes role."
"The US government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many US dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. The government can [thus] reduce the value of a Dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services...Under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation."
" Martin and I are in agreement...the merits of money-financed cash transfers (helicopter drops) overwhelm the alternatives [of abolishing cash and setting negative interest rates]...""We [wrongly] rule out helicopter money because it's undemocratic, but we rule out a discussion of helicopter money because ordinary people might like the idea...""Helicopter Money is (almost) inevitable. The only questions are: who does it; and when do they do it...""We now think the move to central banks endorsing fiscal policy and essentially monetizing the added spending will be relatively quick and direct, in the event of a sudden slump in the global activity."