Minenna, Marcello, (2016), “Helicopter Money: An Old Novelty”, Social Europe, 17 May
Times have surely changed: as little as three years ago, Quantitative Easing was considered a remote hypothesis, EU inflation was well over 2% and only a small fraction of “heretics” (including myself) dared to discuss “helicopter money” as a measure to revive the economy. The “money from helicopters”, dubbed complete madness by Milton Friedman from 1948, has been a taboo for a long time in European economic thought – especially in German circles. Today, after Mario Draghi called the idea “very interesting” during the ECB meeting of the 10th of March, the issue has become a hot potato and the German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has entered into conflict with the ECB.
Relevant Posts
- Biggs, Michael, (2016), “Manna from Helicopters”, Project Syndicate, 13 May
- Heise, Michael, (2016), “The Case Against Helicopter Money”, Project Syndicate, 20 April