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September 6, 2022

I know that I should be doing a proctological examination of Joe Biden’s “Soul of America” speech of September 1, 2022. But I think that Ron DeSantis and an army of highly qualified commentators are doing a much better job than I could ever do.

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Let’s talk instead about something much more fun: the current state of “Money Printer Go Brrr” operations at the Federal Reserve Board.

Here’s the M2 money supply since 1980 from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database.

As you can see, M2 was flying along as unconcerned as a seagull until a little uptick around 2009, courtesy of the real-estate meltdown. Ever since it has increased rather faster than before the Great Recession. I can’t imagine why.

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But, right over at the end on the right, something seems to have gone wrong. Let’s take a closer look. I dare say that the MMT experts on AOC’s staff could tell us what it means.

As you can see, back in 2008 at the start of the Great Recession M2 money supply was about $7.5 trillion. By the end of the glorious reign of President Obama it had nearly doubled, to $13.3 trillion. By the Fall of 2019 M2 was about $15 trillion.

Then, with COVID, M2 money supply increased by about $3 trillion in the five months between March 1, 2020 and August 1, 2020. That’s an increase of about 22 percent. In less than half a year.

Was that really a good idea, noble rulers?

Then in the 15 months between August 1, 2020 and January 1, 2022, M2 money supply increased by another $3.5 trillion to $21.7 trillion. So, in the two years of COVID M2 money supply increased by 40 percent.