Was remembering back to the calmer days past, when Nightly Business Report was a public TV production and Paul Kangas would report the M1 money supply, calculated by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. The M1 moving up or down was seen as an indicator of economic health. Up meant money was available to invest, down showed investments made and economy less liquid. Radical up could mean investors holding cash, out of uncertainty.
Don't hear of that indicator any more, maybe because it has been made less meaningful. It's more of an indicator of how the Treasury is printing money and selling debt. The M1 in 2000 was around $1.2 trillion. Now, it's $3.2 trillion. Perhaps now more indicative of dilution of the dollar's value, so not desirable to report by the likes of today's business reporters.
I doubt that Jim Cramer, Stuart Varney, or their cohorts could offer the meaning of periodic M1 changes in any understandable, less than 25 word explanation.
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