Thursday, October 4, 2012

Monetary Base Since QE3

The monetary base is an indicator which I always pay close attention to because it has been highly correlated with the price of oil and gold since 2009.  Since QE3 was announced I have been paying even closer attention to the measure than usual, but it hasn't yet moved as one would expect it to.  Over the last several weeks the monetary base has fallen as the Fed has purchased more MBS for reasons that  I don't totally understand (likely some technicality and timing of the way assets are accounted for in the Fed's H.4.1 release).  I would expect this to reverse in the coming weeks, but until it does, it may help to explain why oil has been weak since QE3 as well.


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