Simon Wren-Lewis — Helicopter Money: missing the point

Simon Wren Lewis makes an important point. Helicopter money as funds injected directly in the economy at the discretion of the central bank acting independently is different from money finance fiscal stimulus through government spending decided by the government (legislative appropriation)

HM is purely technocratic and MFFS is democratic. Macroeconomists that subscribe to this POV hold the conservative position that that democracy cannot be trusted with the purse, so a technocratic solution that is independent of democratic control or influence is required in the  case of HM. 

This implies that a macroeconomist cannot be an actual liberal but only a faux liberal after the manner of Blair's Labour that triangulated with respect to Thatcher's Tories and became Tory-lite, just as did Bill Clinton in adopting Rubinomics.

Mainly Macro
Helicopter Money: missing the point
Simon Wren-Lewis | Professor of Economics, Oxford University