Friday, May 13, 2011

MZM Rises Above $10 Trillion

My prefered measure of money supply in the United States, Money of Zero Maturity (MZM), rose above $10 trillion for the first time ever. During the latest 12 months, it is up by 6% while during the latest 3-month period it is up by 2.5%, which translates into an annualized rate of more than 10%.

Whether this high rate of increase can be sustained once QE2 ends (in the sense of no more expansion, not in the sense of reversal) remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, official consumer price inflation rose above 3% for the first time since 2008.