In 2002, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, gave a speech about deflation in which he mentioned that the government in a fiat money system owns the physical means of creating money. Control of the means of production for money implies that the government can always avoid deflation by simply issuing (creating money out of thin air) more money. He said "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 no cost." He went on and referred to a statement made by Milton Friedman about using a "helicopter drop" of money into the economy to fight deflation. Ever since then Bernanke was nicknamed helicopter Ben.
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