A month or two ago I thought I'd heard that we could expect another round of money printing by the end of the year. Then, just the other day this article indicated that it probably won't happen until some time next year, depending on how the unemployment numbers change. Good news in the short term, but is more money printing inevitable? The fed is addicted to money printing, IMO. While they might wait until next year to launch QE3, it seems almost certain to happen eventually.
When QE2 was in effect the first half of this year, M2 increased by $285 BILL. Since June, M2 has increased another $523 BILL with over 2 months left to go in the year. I'd say QE3 already started in July when they pumped in $150 BILL in one week to stem the stock market crash. M2 increase for 2011 is on track to triple the 2010 M2 increase ($850 BILL vs. $284 BILL). Only about $40 BILL or more needed. With luck, they could end up increasing M2 by $1 TRILL this year. That would be a QE3 all by itself. But this is only what's officially reported by the FED rather than all the additional hidden debt-money flows.
