Federal Reserve H.6 M2 money stock
What would that cost in today's money supply?
This calculator converts a past dollar amount by the growth in M2, the Federal Reserve's broad measure of money in the economy.
Methodology
This calculator uses U.S. M2 Money Stock from FRED series M2SL, published monthly by the Federal Reserve. For each selected date, it uses the latest available monthly M2 observation on or before that date.
The M2-adjusted value is calculated as:
amount × (M2 at end date / M2 at start date)
This shows how many dollars would be needed to represent the same share of broad money supply over time. It is not CPI inflation and should not be read as a claim that consumer prices rise one-for-one with M2. Consumer prices are also affected by velocity, real output, productivity, imports, credit conditions, asset markets, and changes in money demand.
Treat this as a monetary debasement / money-supply lens, complementary to CPI.
Data source: Federal Reserve M2 via FRED M2SL, monthly, seasonally adjusted.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL
Federal Reserve data
The M2 series starts in January 1959.
- First observation
- 1959
- Latest observation
- Latest M2 stock
FRED M2SL chart
The money supply curve, straight from FRED.
This is the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED chart for M2SL. It shows the monthly M2 money stock in billions of dollars, with shaded areas marking U.S. recessions.
Examples
Common comparisons
Why M2?
M2 is better when you care about dollar dilution.
CPI measures the average price movement of a consumer basket. That is useful for official cost-of-living adjustments, but it can miss a broader monetary question: how much larger did the pool of dollars become?
M2 tracks currency, checking deposits, savings deposits, small time deposits, and retail money market funds. Indexing by M2 shows how much an amount would need to grow to keep the same share of broad money. This can be more relevant for savings, assets, long-run purchasing power, and eras where newly created money flows unevenly through the economy.
The limitation: M2 is not the official inflation rate. Prices also depend on real output, velocity, productivity, credit conditions, global dollar demand, quality changes, and where new money enters first. Treat this as a money-supply-adjusted calculator, not a replacement for CPI or PCE.
Sources
Data from the Federal Reserve Data Download Program for H.6 Money Stock Measures, series . FRED mirror: M2SL. CPI background: BLS CPI FAQ.