To: Moominoid who wrote (6210 ) 4/14/2008 8:56:04 PM From: Galirayo Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 41587 I'm in no way shape or form trying to be 'Clownish' I'm just stating my opinion. The Federal Reserve previously published data on three monetary aggregates, but now it only publishes data on 2 of them. The first, M1, is made up of types of money commonly used for payment, basically currency (M0) and checking deposits. The second, M2, includes M1 plus balances that generally are similar to transaction accounts and that, for the most part, can be converted fairly readily to M1 with little or no loss of principal. The M2 measure is thought to be held primarily by households. The third aggregate, M3, which is no longer published, included M2 plus certain accounts that are held by entities other than individuals and are issued by banks and thrift institutions to augment M2-type balances in meeting credit demands; it also includes balances in money market mutual funds held by institutional investors. The aggregates have had different roles in monetary policy as their reliability as guides has changed. The following details their principal components[14]: M0: The total of all physical currency, plus accounts at the central bank that can be exchanged for physical currency. M1: M0 - those portions of M0 held as reserves or vault cash + the amount in demand accounts ("checking" or "current" accounts). M2: M1 + most savings accounts, money market accounts, and small denomination time deposits (certificates of deposit of under $100,000). M3: M2 + all other CDs (large time deposits, institutional money market mutual fund balances), deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements. The Federal Reserve ceased publishing M3 statistics in March 2006, explaining that M3 did not appear to convey additional information about economic activity compared to M2, had not been used in determining economic policy, and that the costs to collect M3 data outweighed the benefits. Some of the data used to calculate M3 are still collected and published on a regular basis.[15] Current alternate sources of M3 data are available from the private sector.en.wikipedia.org From en.wikipedia.org