The great fear in 2008 was about deflation, not inflation. Defaulting debt removes large amounts from the Money Supply. By "printing" hundreds of billions of dollars to replace this disappearing money, the fed and the administration is hoping to avoid severe deflation. This may help in the short term... months to a year or two... but in the long run it is inflationary to the extreme.

Kind of like a compassionate dose of narcotics to the addict in withdrawal... it makes him feel better now but only perpetuates the addiction and doesn't solve his real problem.

Unlike Germany, we don't even need "high speed printing presses running 24 hours a day" to effect monetary inflation. It all happens electronically on computers these days and can be done instantaneously.