March 07
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?