One of the many unusual things in the financial markets these days is the relationship between the growth in the money supply and inflation expectations. At the same time, as unprecedented growth in the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve is taking place, inflation expectations, as witnessed by the narrow yield spreads between inflation indexed treasuries and regular treasuries, are extremely low.
Low inflation expectations
Inflation expectation for the coming 12 months, as measured by a University of Michigan survey of consumers, have been coming down rapidly, from 5.1% last July to 1.7% in December. Given the current weakness in the economy and falling commodity prices, it is perhaps not surprising that people are expecting low inflation in the near term (although deflation fears seem to have diminished recently). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Arnbjorn Ingimundarson 
