And In The Meantime, The Adjusted Monetary Base....

...is up by $51 billion in two weeks. But, once again, before people freak out that this is some crazy scheme to flood the market with money (nothing crazy about that scheme: it has been going on for 2 years), keep in mind: this is merely the delayed catch up of the SFP program unwind and the ongoing increase in Treasury holdings by the Federal Reserve Capital, ULC. Nonetheless, it is disturbing that the gradual phase out in the build up of the Adjusted Monetary Base, exclusively due to the rise in Excess Bank Reserves, is still proceeding at a 100%+ CAGR.

The variance between the accumulation in Excess Reserves (Fed liabilities) and Security Holdings (Fed assets) since the start of QE2, can be seen on the chart below. Whereas two months ago reserves were lagging the build out in assets by up to $170 billion, this has since flipped and there has been a dramatic build out in reserves to the tune of $74 billion more than assets.

Once again, there is little mystery here: the question is how much will the market discount these electronic 1 and 0s eventually entering the market, and being an inflationary force, and secondly, just how effective will an IOER hike be in order to prevent $1.7 trillion in excess reserves at the time of QE2 end (on $970 billion of currency in circulation) from becoming a hyperinflationary juggernaut.
Where there is mystery, however, is what actually comprises the Fed's "Other Assets" account which in the last week hit a new all time record of $123 billion.