And despite persistent beliefs to the contrary, “printing money” doesn’t translate into massive inflation: when you’re on the edge of a depression, the main problem is avoiding a deflationary spiral. Between September and December 2008, the ECB and the Fed created nearly €2 trillion in new money (10 percent of European or American GDP) and lent it at 0 percent interest to private banks. That helped avoid cascading bankruptcies, without any additional inflation. [...]