Suggestions on what they should have done?
Not print money.
In case you don't understand how this works, the Federal Reserve purchases Treasury paper (e.g. Bonds) this time on the open market. Let's say they bought a bond that you were holding. They pay you with newly printed Federal Reserve Notes (really this just a computer entry on your bank account) and now you have money to spend that didn't exist before. The Fed holds the Treasury paper as "backing" as if it were gold, but really they are just I-O-MEs. Whenever the paper becomes due, the Treasury must pay back the Federal Reserve and that money ceases to exist. EXCEPT that the Treasury had to print up some new I-O-MEs they just "sold" directly to the FED which created new money just in time.
ML/NJ