Daily Reminder: Money Supply

Money supply growth is the principal cause of inflation. Milton Friedman argued that a healthy economy required restricting growth to the 3-5% range.

Data source: Federal Reserve. Data is for Sept 2011 to Sept 2012.

Michael Isenberg is the author of Full Asylum, a novel about politics, freedom, and hospital gowns. Check it out on Amazon.com.

Unified Field Theory of the Economy?

Interesting to see these four charts together:

As you can see, there really was a time, corresponding roughly to the Reagan, Bush 41, and Clinton administrations, when the government exercised some restraint in printing money, regulating, and spending. This coincided with an unemployment rate considerably lower than we have today.

I’ll leave it to you to determine what conclusions, if any, may be drawn.

Michael Isenberg is the author of Full Asylum, a novel about politics, freedom, and hospital gowns. Check it out on Amazon.com.

---

Technical stuff:
All data are three-year moving averages.
New regulations are actual pages published in the Federal Register (total pages minus blank and skip pages). Source: FederalRegister.gov
Money supply data is seasonally adjusted M2. Source: Federal Reserve
Spending data sources: Federal outlays from the Office of Management and Budget; GDP is current dollar from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Unemployment data source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.