Where does ‘helicopter money’ come from?

Taking off

Who came up with the concept of ‘helicopter money’?

— The term is derived from an essay in 1969 by the economist Milton Friedman, who suggested a theoretical experiment where a helicopter flew over a community suffering from low growth and dropped $1,000 of banknotes which were then eagerly collected by the residents and spent.

— The idea was revived in a speech by the then chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, in 2002.

— Come the banking crisis, however, central banks opted for an indirect way of pumping extra money into the financial system, via quantitative easing.

— If governments do drop money into the pockets of businesses and individuals, one sector for whom it will have come too late is, ironically, the helicopter industry. It has had a torrid time in recent years thanks to the decline of offshore oil operations, with Bristow and PHI among companies filing for bankruptcy protection last year.