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 excep- 
tions, 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 deter- 
mined 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 dif- 
ferences 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