by Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
In August, for the fifth month in a row, money supply growth surged to an all-time high, following new all-time highs in April, May, June, and July that came in the wake of unprecedented quantitative easing, central bank asset purchases, and various stimulus packages.
The growth rate has never been higher, with the 1970s being the only period that comes close. It was expected that money supply growth would surge in recent months. This usually happens in the wake of the early months of a recession or financial crisis. But it appears that now the United States is several months into an extended economic crisis, with around 1 million new jobless claims each week from March until mid-September, with more than 12 million unemployed workers currently collecting benefits. Economic growth plummeted in the second quarter as GDP growth fell more than 9 percent. At a September press conference, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell predicted “millions of people…are going to struggle to find work [for] couple of years at least.”