Commercial Bank Lending at All-Time High
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
From today’s front page WSJ article “Recession Fears Weigh Heavily On the Markets”:
This time around, much depends on how tight a rein financial institutions keep on their lending and consumers keep on their spending.
By itself, the housing slump seems unlikely to choke off U.S. economic growth. Home construction accounts for less than 5% of the nation’s gross domestic product. But if banks curb their lending in response to billions of dollars of mortgage-related write-offs, or if consumers cut their spending as home values fall and gasoline prices rise, it could knock the economy out of its delicate balance.
The chart above (click to enlarge) shows lending activity at all U.S. commercial banks from 1985 through the third quarter 2007, using data from the Federal Reserve Board. As the chart shows, both: a) all loans, and b) real estate loans, are at all-time highs, and there doesn’t appear to be any “curbing in lending” by commercial banks, at least not yet.
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