"It doesn't explain all the variance" is very a generous way to say "it explains one seventh of the variance". And re: free lunch-- keep in mind that empirical

"It doesn't explain all the variance" is very a generous way to say "it explains one seventh of the variance". And re: free lunch-- keep in mind that empirical reality isn't affected by our internal sense of fairness. It is possible that we will find free lunches in our existence. Nuclear energy is arguably a kind of free lunch. That said, my last comment was specifically contrasting more sustained M2 expansion, or an expansion of a higher order of magnitude. We don't know exactly what would happen then, but there's a decent possibility of high inflation in that case.