We've already joined Alice in Wonderland and no one noticed.
the unthinkable.

Faced with political intransigence, central bankers are openly talking about the previously unthinkable: "helicopter money".
A catch-all term, helicopter drops describe the process by which central banks can create money to transfer to the public or private sector to stimulate economic activity and spending.
Long considered one of the last policymaking taboos, debate around the merits of helicopter money has gained traction in recent weeks.
ECB chief Mario Draghi has refused to rule out the prospect, saying only that the bank had not yet “discussed” such matters due to their legal and accounting complexity. This week, his chief economist Peter Praet went further in hinting that helicopter drops were part of the ECB's toolbox.
"All central banks can do it", said Praet. "You can issue currency and you distribute it to people. The question is, if and when is it opportune to make recourse to that sort of instrument".
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For some observers, the next phase in extraordinary central bank action is already upon us, and it is Japan which is leading the way.
The Bank of Japan’s move to impose a three tiered deposit rate on banks is a covert attempt to inject funds directly to the private sector, argues Eric Lonergan, economist and hedge fund manager.
He notes that the BoJ's decision to exempt some reserves from the negative rate represents a transfer of cash to commercial lenders at rate of 0.1pc.
The system "separates out the interest rate on reserves from that which affects market rates”, says Lonergan.
"It is taking the first step along the journey towards helicopter money and opens up a whole new avenue of stimulus”.

Helicopter money is the very last bullet in a central banker's weapon. There is simply nothing left.

This won't end well

The European Central Bank's negative interest rates are sparking demand for safe deposit boxes, where bank customers can store cash to avoid the prospect of paying the bank interest on their accounts, German bankers said.
The ECB last week cut its main interest rate to zero and dropped the rate on its deposit facility to -0.4 percent from -0.3 percent, increasing the amount banks are charged to deposit funds with the central bank.
"Lockboxes are in vogue," Hans-Bernd Wolberg, the chief executive of German regional cooperative lender WGZ, told a news conference on Thursday.

The Japanese already went there

Remember when we used to worry about this?

In a bid to raise cash, foreign central banks and government institutions sold $57.2 billion of U.S. Treasury debt and other notes in January, according to figures released on Tuesday. That is up from $48 billion in December and the highest monthly tally on record going back to 1978.
It's part of a broader trend that gathered steam last year when central banks sold a record $225 billion of U.S. debt.
For instance, China has been liquidating its holdings of foreign debt to pump money into its slowing economy, plummeting currency and extremely volatile stock market. China, the largest owner of U.S. debt, trimmed its Treasury holdings by $8.2 billion in January, the Treasury Department said. The actual decline was likely larger considering China reported selling $100 billion of foreign-exchange reserves in January.

This won't end well either

Home prices in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have surged by 20-30% since the Lunar New Year in February, according to state-controlled media. In Shenzhen, prices have increased by more than 70% over the past 12 months.
This is not the first time China is facing a property bubble. But one thing makes this time around different – unregulated lending.
Previous upswings were not driven by leverage, McCord explains. The norm was that people did not finance the maximum allowable level. They financed, on average, half of the cost – even if 70% or 80% was allowed. Therefore, mortgages did not play a role in driving up demand or prices.
“Now, we believe there are more buyers using the maximum available leverage,” he says. “For homebuyers, it is easier than ever to get mortgages.”
But more important, McCord adds, the downpayment itself is today often being financed through peer-to-peer lending channels.
“This is not the norm yet, but it’s appearing and it makes us uncomfortable,” he says. “This means some buyers are buying with zero down.”
In his view, peer-to-peer lenders are basically another form of high-interest “loan shark.”

This is disturbing

While current political polls and even online gamblers say that Donald Trump is a longshot for the Oval Office, a Stony Brook University professor says his calculations show the tycoon is almost certain to win the election.
Prof. Helmut Norpath, appearing on Fox and Friends this morning, says Trump’s odds of winning the presidency are between 97-99%. Norpath says his calculations are based on historical models of primaries that have proven largely accurate for over 100 years.
Norpath says his model has only fallen short on one election since 1912 – the Bush-Gore race of 2000 (when Gore, in fact, won the popular vote).