Wednesday, February 17, 2016

"There is one more thing I want to tell you, Ben," Greenspan said, "but I can't remember just now."


Broad money relative to narrow money. In this case, M2 relative to Base:

Graph #1: M2 Money as a Multiple of Base Money
M2 money hugged the "8" line -- 8 times the size of Base Money -- for eleven years, from June 1995 to June 2006. With one minor disruption for the Y2K thing. Eleven years, eight times base. Even during the dot-com bubble and the 2001 recession.

There's no way that wasn't policy.

After the 11-year flat spot, the ratio started going up.

Ben Bernanke took the helm in February 2006. The ratio started going up in mid-2006 and stopped less than two years later.

Oops.

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