"Effectively the Fed has become a cash machine rather than a monetary expansion machine. At the end of last year, the multiplier had actually fallen to less than 1.0 & the trend remains downward. If anyone had told us five years ago that the money multiplier would be down to 1.0 we would have laughed. The laugh, however, would have been upon us, for it is there & it is still falling. Hard it shall be to sponsor strong economic growth when no one really wants to take a loan or when few banks want to make a loan. The "game" of banking has been turned upon its head, & the strength of the economy suffers while inflationary pressures (at least for now) remain virtually non-existent." - Dennis Gartman
Cliff's Interpretation: the bank machine is broken..The $100trillion question: can it be fixed? or will the money have to be dropped from helicopters?