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To: AdamSelene235
This is probably very interesting... help out a layman though... what's the definition of the "M3" and what is this chart demonstrating? Billions of dollars in what context?

Seriously, I don't know what this means but want to.

2 posted on 11/11/2005 2:52:26 PM PST by Lloyd227
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To: Lloyd227
M3 defined
4 posted on 11/11/2005 2:54:47 PM PST by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: Lloyd227
what is this chart demonstrating?

Apparently nothing worth monitoring.

10 posted on 11/11/2005 3:08:11 PM PST by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: Lloyd227
M3 is a measure of the "total money supply". It is "broader" that is, it includes more asset classes as money then either M1 or M2. M1 is sometimes called "cash and equivelents", it includes checking deposits, savings deposits, basically any money you could get instantly. M2 includes things like Certificates of Deposit, and M3 even more esoteric instruments like those named.

The graph above shows the growth in M3, which has grown by about 4x since 1980. What this means is a subject of debate and concern. On the one hand simpletons like me say OK, so money has grown by 4x, but supposedly monetary growth is linked to growth in output (like the GDP), and using the "broadest" measure of that it hasn't even doubled.

This would tend to indicate that the government (actually the Fed) is 'running the printing presses non-stop'. This, one would expect would lead to inflation. (More money chasing the same amount of goods an services.)

We are seeing inflation in the government reported inflation statistics now. There are some who think that the way the inflation statistics are put together is, umm, lets say "favorable" to presenting a low inflation story when in fact real inflation is higher than that.

The Feds job is to keep everyone believing that the US Dollar is worth a dollar (or 98c compared to last year at the new Fed chairmans targeted inflation rate of 2%). Apparently such M3 was no longer useful to this core mission, as it was easily mininterpreted by those of us with only rudimentary understanding of macro-economics. So it has been retired. They have also retired some of the compoents so that we can't unofficially reconstuct it.

May the M3 rest in eternal peace in the land beyond the clouds where no-longer-useful measures go.

13 posted on 11/11/2005 3:27:52 PM PST by Jack Black
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