If the current episode of monetary tightening were a scene from a movie, we’d be looking at something similar to the scene from Apocalypse Now, where a group of helicopters is approaching a small village on the beach with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries beaming from the speakers. Parallels between central banks and helicopters are not uncommon: Milton Friedman played with the theme (“helicopter drops of money”) and Chair Ben Bernanke earned a helicopter-themed moniker (“Helicopter Ben”). But then, consider… …that helicopters are just vehicles. In helicopter analogies, it’s not the vehicle, but their payloads that ... (full story)