A key measure of the Federal Reserve’s money supply reached an all-time high in August, new central bank data show.
The M2 money supply—a broad metric of money and savings in the U.S. economy—climbed by approximately $1 trillion from a year ago to $22.2 trillion last month, topping the pandemic-era peak and representing a 5 percent year-over-year increase. Over the past five years, the data show, the M2 money base has soared by approximately $7 trillion.
The U.S. money supply has increased substantially since the 2008 global financial crisis, when the Federal Reserve implemented three rounds of quantitative easing—a large-scale asset purchasing program. However, the stock of money has taken off like a rocket ship since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when it soared by approximately $5 trillion in two years….