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Comment by mech987 | Hacker News Reader

Here's the data on M2 money supply in billions of dollars, for those curious, in billions of dollars:

Feb 2020: 15,457.9 Feb 2022: 21,699.2

This is a 40.3% increase.

To be charitable, this money isn't all on printed physical cash dollar bills, but nowadays there is no need for it to be. (I'm tempted not to be charitable though.)

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL

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A 40.3% increase is different than the percentage of the total money supply that was printed in the last two years, which for your numbers works out to about 29%. I would argue that most people would interpret “we created X% of the Y supply” in this way and not as a percentage increase.

That is a fair point- although when the increases are large enough in such a small time that the prior/posterior calculations are that different, I don't feel like it inspires confidence.

the point your making is completely useless. If someone has billions of dollars in storage somewhere (like Iran literally does) it doesn't affect the supply of money until they start moving it or using it in some way.

Like if someone found a trillion long tons of pure gold somewhere, but decided not to sell it or even use it. The price of gold isn't just going to collapse overnight. Sure the markets will panic sell for a few days, but it's still a real commodity with real uses & demands.

Putting a ton more _active_ money in the system does change the value of money.

I’m not making any point at all, besides trying to clarify the math and terminology GP used. I know very little about economics :)

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