Can we count the ways?
Reader CB poses an interesting question:
“For you deep thinkers, I would appreciate some assistance with a tough question:
How many dollars (American) exist?”
It’s a fitting question for the Federal Reserve thread where it appears, but the thread is getting longish and the question deserves its own space. So here it is.
Hmmm … no deep thinkers having weighed in yet, I’ll take a stab at it. The first hurdle is that the number is constantly changing, so any specific number would be outdated before I could finish typing it.
Another hurdle is that it depends on how you define dollars. One measure would be actual paper currency in circulation, cash. Another would be M1, the total of cash and demand deposits (checking accounts). Another broader measure would be M2, the total of M1 plus less liquid forms like savings accounts and money market funds.
For the actual numbers, I know of no better source than FRED, which publishes snapshot estimates at regular intervals like weekly, monthly, etcetera, historical data series and detailed identification of what each data series includes.
Its almost impossible to calculate ……………..how many stars?