The last time I jumped out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane for a tandem skydive the exit altitude was 12,000 feet; scary. Felix Baumgartner has just done that but from 120,000 feet plus; bonkers. The difference between the two separated by one zero and a phenomenal amount of experience and funding might help give people an idea of the enormity of quantitative easing. Only with QE we are adding three zeros to a billion and ramping up the big number, with undeniably a lot less skill and even Red Bull don't have the wherewithal to fund it.

So who will pay the bill for this monetary "experiment"? Gavyn Davies in his FT blog has suggested that central banks will "forgive" some of the sovereign debt they hold. He is thus speaking to the reality of the situation in the same way as FB on the edge of space - the only way is down. Down to zero altitude and as well as zero bond redemptions; arguably good for the governments concerned, but with a potentially severe inflation kicker. This in effect would be money printing on steroids.

David Fuller's view Nice analogy.