Record Surge in CFS Money Growth

CFS Divisia money growth soared across the board – hitting a historic high not witnessed in the 53-year period analyzed by our Advances in Monetary and Financial Measurement (AMFM) team. CFS Divisia M4, which is the broadest and most important measure of money, grew by a record 22.0% in April 2020 on a year-over-year basis versus an unrevised 10.0% in March 2020.

Today’s release represents the first time that all of our monetary aggregates reached new records.

In the last month, since our highlighting a future of nuanced changes surrounding the inflation versus deflation debate, a surge of articles and pieces have appeared.

Disinflation will likely dominate in the near term with jobless claims hitting highs and oil prices remaining relatively low for an extended period of time. Nonetheless, the passthrough from monetary policy into inflation is meaningfully more complex than often thought. My remarks at the Society of Economic Measurement conference in Thessaloniki shed some light on the interplay between CFS Divisia Money and inflation over time – http://centerforfinancialstability.org/research/why_cfs_divisia_071316.pdf

Our data suggest that recent monetary measures will prove far from costless. Higher inflation is likely in coming months.

For Monetary and Financial Data Release Report:
http://www.centerforfinancialstability.org/amfm/Divisia_Apr20.pdf

Bloomberg terminal users can access our monetary and financial statistics by any of the four options:

1) ALLX DIVM
2) ECST T DIVMM4IY
3) ECST –> ‘Monetary Sector’ –> ‘Money Supply’ –> Change Source in top right to ‘Center for Financial Stability’
4) ECST S US MONEY SUPPLY –> From source list on left, select ‘Center for Financial Stability’

Financial Timeline: 13 years of Official and Market Action

The CFS Financial Timeline, created and managed by senior fellow Yubo Wang, is likely the longest continuous financial timeline freely available. It covers over 1,300 international events from early 2007 to the present. The timeline curates essential inputs from established public sources to seamlessly link financial markets, financial institutions, and public policies.

The CFS Financial Timeline has become an integral part of the work done by scholars, students, government officials, and market analysts, who seek to:

  • Uncover relationships among market reactions, institutional activities, and public policies
  • Accurately analyze developments, in one place, as they happen,
  • Put current events in a historical context, and gain insights on future developments.

View the Timeline at:
http://centerforfinancialstability.org/timeline.php

FT Letter: The faultlines of the crisis are complex and varied

Today my letter in the FT responds to Martin Wolf’s “Coronavirus crisis lays bare the risks of financial leverage, again.”  Martin clearly highlights segments in capital markets creating fragilities before the recent shock.

The role of central bank policy distorting incentives in 2019 was absent.  Skewed investing incentives began on December 18, 2018 – when the FOMC statement misread the global economy and markets and balance sheet expansion resumed.

“The faultlines of the crisis are complex and varied”
https://www.ft.com/content/48e41d0c-8bb4-11ea-a01c-a28a3e3fbd33

For more on Fed policy and markets after December 18, 2018 – see pages 5-6 of my Boston Economic Club remarks
http://centerforfinancialstability.org/speeches/BEC_Now_What_031820.pdf