SERIES CORRELATED WITH EARNING ASSETS 159

and discounts to earning assets are positively correlated with
high and low ratios of gross earnings, net earnings, total expense,
and with each class of operating expense except interest on
deposits, for which the correlation is inverse; (2) there is little
or no systematic relation between high or low ratios of loans and
discounts to earning assets and ratios of demand deposits and
of time deposits to total deposits; and (3) with minor exceptions,
 the greater the deviation, positive or negative, of ratios
of loans and discounts to earning assets from ‘their seven-year
average levels, the greater the net deviations of gross earnings, net
earnings, and operating expense from their respective levels,
That is, in general, whenever and wherever district ratios of
loans and discounts to earning assets are above their average
level for the period 1919-19235, the corresponding district ratios
of gross earnings, of operating expense, and of net earning
tend to be above their average levels, the positions being determined
 by taking an average, algebraically, of the positive and
negative deviations relative to their respective levels. It should
be remembered that the average percentage deviations of each
of the series paired with loans and discounts are nef amounts.
If the net amount is positive, this means in general that the
majority of the deviations are positive; if it is negative, that the
majority are negative. See, for illustration of the frequency
grouping in two series, the detail in Table g6.
One further word about Table 97. The net percentage differences
 for the series correlated with loans and discounts refer
in all cases to the number of district-years having the classified
percentage dispersions indicated for loans and discounts. For
instance, there were 16 district-years which, at some time or
other for the years 1919-1925, had ratios of loans and discounts
deviating positively from their respective seven-year levels by
less than 2.50% —the average being 1.45. The net percentage
deviation of these same districts for each of the related series
is indicated on the line of the table bearing this amount, the
average for gross earnings being + 1.70; for operating expense,
+2.36. Moreover, it will be seen that the table provides net
average amounts in the various series for the totals of all positive
and of all negative deviations with respect to loans and discounts.
These summaries, being more general than those referring to the