Paul Ryan grills Helicopter Ben

The incomparable Jim Grant on Bloomberg

Bill Ackman and Michael Porter on CNBC

Well, really?

We could raise interest rates in 15 minutes if we have to. So, there really is no problem with raising rates, tightening monetary policy, slowing the economy, reducing inflation, at the appropriate time.

-- Ben Bernanke, 2010, on 60 Minutes

But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also 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. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.

-- Ben Bernanke, 2002, http://www.federalreserve.gov/boardDocs/speeches/2002/20021121/default.htm