The Federal Reserve has little time for money. Not dismissive of the contents of your wallet, per se, the US central bank sees limited value in measures of money as economic indicators. The Fed stopped tracking the broadest measure of US money in 2006, arguing it had not been used in interest rate decisions for some time. Now, it brands its response to the economic crisis “credit easing”, reflecting its focus on banks’ balance sheets, rather than “quantitative easing”, or boosting the money supply.

This is unfortunate. By its preferred measure of success, the Fed is having a shocker. Outstanding consumer credit has been contracting for five months straight, falling $10.3bn from May to June and down 4.9 per cent on an annual basis. Credit throughout the US economy is flat-lining or in decline, as banks tighten their lending standards and over-burdened businesses and households begin to pay down debt accumulated during the boom.