I found it instructive to look at the stock market (Dow) and gold separately during the previous boom/bust cycles. In the 20’s and 30’s the United States was on a gold standard, meaning the value of a dollar was “tied” to gold. This tie to gold stopped the Federal Reserve

Note: if you are searching for the Austrian Business Cycle and landing here, you might be interested in The Dow/Gold Zoom, which is a chart that shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average priced in gold. This might help you to get an idea where we are in the “cycle”. The

Here I’ve adjusted the prices of gold and silver to the M2 money supply figure. Note the spike in the price of silver relative to gold in 1979. This chart is in pdf format. Silver and Gold M2 Adjusted

In any study of economics, it’s important to remember — all prices are ratios. That means that they are always in flux as the values of one or the other or both commodities change, whether one of those commodities is used as money or not. This is, of course, a

Just how high is the price of oil? The CPI is a rather suspect inflation indicator, so here are oil prices adjusted for the M3 money supply. As M3 has been discontinued, this chart will no longer be updated. I may consider publishing a version of it using M2 or

It is often pointed out that the Federal Reserve is a “private” corporation. In fact, it is very much a government entity. For that reason, it is worth getting a look at the the money supply in relation to the Federal Reserve chairmen and the presidents. As M3 has been

In March 2006 the Federal Reserve ceased publishing the most popular money supply figure, M3. You can find some information about their supposed reasons here. This chart may help you to come to your own conclusions. Some other writers have attempted to recreate M3. One such attempt can be found