Att amerikanska banker börjar strypa krediter är ytterligare ett tecken på vart den amerikanska ekonomin är på väg. När bankerna stryper tillgången på kapital även för friska företag är det en rejäl varningssignal. Det är ju investeringar som genererar fler och nya arbeten som fryser inne. Liksom intäkter för bankerna.
Det är den amerikanska bolånekrisen som slår mot bankerna. Att som E24 rapporterar 3 procent av alla amerikanska hem nu står tomma är en enorm kapitalförstörelse. Bakom de tomma bostäderna finns ju banklån som finansierat både byggandet och köpet av dessa hem.
Worried Banks Sharply Reduce Business Loans – NYTimes.com
Two vital forms of credit used by companies — commercial and industrial loans from banks, and short-term “commercial paper” not backed by collateral — collectively dropped almost 3 percent over the last year, to $3.27 trillion from $3.36 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data. That is the largest annual decline since the credit tightening that began with the last recession, in 2001.
The scarcity of credit has intensified the strains on the economy by withholding capital from many companies, just as joblessness grows and consumers pull back from spending in the face of high gas prices, plummeting home values and mounting debt.
“The second half of the year is shot,” said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at the trading firm MKM Partners in Greenwich, Conn., who was until recently optimistic that the economy would continue expanding. “Access to capital and credit is essential to growth. If that access is restrained or blocked, the economic system takes a hit.”
Companies that rely on credit are now delaying and canceling expansion plans as they struggle to secure finance.