The fact the money supply is actually shrinking serves as just one more indicator that the so-called soft landing promised by the Federal Reserve is unlikely to be a reality.
When the Soviet Union collapsed more than thirty years ago, US and European political elites sought to isolate and threaten Russia. The result has been war, destruction, and death, none of it necessary.
We're now seeing the first time the money supply has actually contracted since the 1990s. The last time the year-over-year change in the money supply slipped into negative territory was in November of 1994.
Money supply growth slowed even more in October, and is now back to levels we last saw during the repo liquidity crunch of 2019, and in the days right before the 2007–09 recession.
