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Ben has finally started the engine on the Helipcopter. The process of expanding the Fed's balance sheet to support this mess has begun. God help us all.

``The Treasury Department announced today the initiation of a temporary Supplementary Financing Program at the request of the Federal Reserve,'' the department said in a statement today. ``The program will consist of a series of Treasury bills, apart from Treasury's current borrowing program.''

Temporary my ass. If Helicopter Ben really thinks he can print his way out of this mess, than he really is a freaking lunatic. We'd be looking smak into a currency crisis and a spike in borrowing costs. Neither are scenarios that the US can afford right now.

I'm all for the government making strategic moves to help facilitate the graceful liquidation of assets. But the assets MUST be allowed to fall in value and fall as quickly as is possible. It's the only way that we can get back to a true functioning market based on reliable valuations. Yes, many, many companies will fail. They fucked up and they need to pay for that. So does everyone who invested in those companies. Just because it might cause some pain is no reason to bail out stupidity or a broken model.

Forest fires are a necessary occurence to clear away dead brush to make way for new and stronger trees and growth. The same thing can be said for a free market system. It's only when you try and manipulate the cycle that bigger problems occur. Studies have proven that putting out forest fires prematurely can ultimately lead to bigger and more devastating fires down the road. A series of smaller fires is preferred to get back to equilibrium. Financial markets are much the same, only we are now seeing why putting out the fire earlier in the decade was such a mistake.