Helicopter money and the economic equilibrium
OECD countries can be considered to be implementing helicopter money: public income transfers financed by money creation. It is as if the central bank were distributing money to economic agents. What effect does this policy have on savings and the economic equilibrium? The nature of this distribution of money is the subject of much debate: how does it differ from the distribution of income? If, in the short term, the public income transfers are primarily saved, then there will be no increase in production and savings will increase by the amount of the helicopter money, which simply means that the money distributed to economic agents will be saved, resulting in a relatively sterile equilibrium; If a portion of these income transfers is then consumed, savings will still increase by the amount of the helicopter money, but a portion of savings will stem from the portion of the helicopter money that is saved and the rest will stem from an increase in production. OECD countries are still largely in the first equilibrium, where the helicopter money is saved. In this first equilibrium, there is more money in circulation, but not more income. In the second equilibrium, the additional income may be significantly greater than the additional money.