The Decline in Lending

In this Mother Jones blog, Kevin Drum has a good look at the true state of lending in the US. The image presented is not all that comforting.

Using Treasury Department data, the Wall Street Journal did an analysis demonstrating that the biggest recipients of taxpayer aid saw a whopping 23% drop in lending between October 2008, when TARP kicked off, and February 2009.

I suppose one could expect a drop off of lending in a crappy economy, but 23%. Yikes.

Chart of the Day - 4.20.2009