In response to the current economic crisis, central banks have embarked on operations to purchase huge quantities of government bonds. Accusations that these policies amount to ‘printing money’ or ‘helicopter drops’ are unfounded and misleading. This column argues that the asset purchase operations undertaken when interest rates are very low can help greatly in stabilising the economy. These actions allow governments to issue long-term bonds, incur low effective costs in the near horizon, and avoid volatile financial markets.