If you’d like to know just how much Ben Bernanke has expanded the money supply during the last few months, just take a look at this chart on the website of the St. Louis Fed. I’m not at all certain that there are any adjectives that do the event justice, but “astounding,” “flabbergasting,” and “utterly astonishing” come close.

Note, incidentally, the tiny little wiggle at the year 2000. That represents the Y2K monetary expansion, judged huge at the time. There are plenty of people who would argue that the Fed’s efforts to shrink the money supply afterwards–that is, Greenspan’s mopping up operation–burst the high-tech bubble, causing the last downturn. How will the Fed mop up after this expansion?

HT: Andy Kessler. It’s impossible to run into Andy at Starbucks without learning something–often enough, something alarming.