Term defining the money supply

The most common measures are named M0, M1, M2, and M3. In the United States they are defined by the Federal Reserve as follows:

M0: The total of all physical currency, plus accounts at the central bank that can be exchanged for physical currency.

M1: M0 - those portions of M0 held as reserves or vault cash + the amount in demand accounts ("checking" or "current" accounts).

M2: M1 + most savings accounts, money market accounts, and small denomination time deposits (certificates of deposit of under $100,000).

M3: M2 + all other CDs, deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements.

The Federal Reserve ceased publishing M3 statistics in March 2006, explaining that it costs a lot to collect the data but doesn't provide significantly useful information. The other three money supply measures continue to be provided in detail.

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