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    March 07

    M1 multiplier falls below 1

    I think this is only for America, but anyway, this is exciting(ly sad?) new. I find myself lucky not having forgotten all about M1 and such, and I feel compulsory to post a non-original piece. Here it goes:

    The M1 multiplier is less than one (graph):

    The Demise of Fractional Reserve Banking, by Athenian Abroad: Fractional reserve banking -- the system under which banks hold only a fraction of their deposits in reserve, and lend the rest -- is a bête noire of a certain segment of the economic and political blogosphere. There's something about it that seems dizzyingly insubstantial, self-referential, unnatural, unearthly, and unholy: it's the Financial System from Yuggoth! I don't get it myself, but the metaphysical loathing can be quite intense.

    So, for these folks: good news! We don't have fractional reserve banking anymore.

    In statistics-speak, since last November, the monetary base has exceeded M1, which means, more or less, that bank reserves (plus surplus vault cash) exceed liquid deposits.

    So everything's OK now, right?


    Taken from: Economist's View