I really don’t think Bernanke had any choice but to print money. When the annual deficits were around $400 billion, there was enough capital in the world markets to soak it up. But when the deficits skyrocketed to $1.6 trillion and stayed there for three or four years, it exceeded the world’s capacity to absorb it. There was really no other action Bernanke could do but print money, and then come up with a fancy BS name lest people realize they were going to have to take their paychecks home in wheelbarrows.
There's the problem. With real unemployment and underemployment somewhere north of 13%, wages are and will continue to be nominally stagnant. Prices, the cost of living, will continue to rise as the standard of living declines sharply. Then new taxes will be proposed.....