Some reporters for the New York Post tried to prove the existence of a credit crunch by going out to apply for loans. Loans for housing, loans for autos, loans for boats .... One problem -- their loan applications were approved (one of the 5 was formally denied, but even in that case the banker said that the money could be obtained through a credit card application)! Read about it here: "To loan seekers in Manhattan last week, the credit crunch seemed nowhere to be found."
From Alphaville:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/3280664/Bank-of-England-member-David-Blanchflower-admits-bank-was-slow-to-act-on-rates.html
"Meanwhile, in the latest sign that the financial crisis has spread to become a major economic issue, the Bank's figures showed that the amount of money passing through the hands of UK non-financial businesses slumped sharply in the wake of the Lehmans crisis.
"The broadest measure of the amount of cash available to companies excluding banks - M4 - is shrinking at the fastest rate since 1980. Meanwhile, the amount of cash in peoples' hands and in instant access bank accounts rose by only 0.1pc in the year to September - the weakest annual increase since 1969."
Don the libertarian Democrat