ergo sum...
I am not sure who proposed it first, but it is keynesian/monetarist economics. The Austrian school would say bite the bullet and get it over with.
I think in most cases I would side with the Keynesians, but in this particular economic circumstance (a busted bubble of massive proportions) I doubt that monetarist policy or fiscal policy will help since they do not address the problem.
I do not remember who said it, but someone (Bernanke??) mentioned recently about dropping money out of helicoptors if needed. Bernanke also proposed to the Japanese (presumably for here also) that we could just monetize the deficit and make it go "poof" - just disappear.
mlsoft