Central banks and finance ministries concluded that there would be a repeat of the deflationary slump of the 1930s unless they increased the money supply. So they cut interest rates, printed more money and
announced large fiscal stimulus packages. This process has worked, but only up to a point. Excluding China, the annual growth rate in the global money supply has fallen from 10% at the height bf the financial crisis to zero. Without the action taken
by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and other central banks there would have been a collapse of credit every bit as disastrous as that seen in the Great Depression.