INFLATION: $100 for Everyone

For the first time in history last week there was enough money in the U.S. to give every man, woman & child a bankroll of $100. A year ago total folding money and change averaged $76 per citizen. Back in free & easy 1929 the average never topped $41.

This news came from the Federal Reserve System report which put money in circulation at a fantastic $13,400,000,000 —enough to buy all the automobiles produced by the U.S. in the three years ended in 1941 or all the radios made since the industry started in 1920.

Nice for the average citizen, this sharp rise in cash has the Treasury Department worried. For one thing, nobody knows where all the money goes after it leaves the mint. Best official guesses: 1) into bigger payrolls, including the huge all-cash soldier pay; 2) into a new crop of coin-operating devices; 3) into hoarding.

For another thing Treasury officials shudder when they think of what would happen if an inflation scare started everyone spending all their money at once.