This is a depression.

[Deep13]

And the cause is a lack of credit. Now just how we got so dependent on credit from corporate banks is another issue. It is a fact, nevertheless. My wife's family's business which has been operating since the 1970s has just gone from full-time, overtime, Saturday gangbusters to 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Tues., Wed. and Thursday. I don't know that they are going to survive this and my gut instinct is that they will not. They just owe too much money to a bank that is already looking for excuses to foreclose. And who knows how long I'll have this county job before budget cuts lay me off. I'm hoping we don't lose our house and our health insurance.

[PM Martin]

1. It is going to get vile by summer.

A hard bottom may arrive by years end. Then we can begin the climb out of the hole.

[bdamomma]

14. it is going to rough for everyone, I think everyone is waiting to climb out of the hole.

[MADem]

2. Yep. But it isn't just "lack of credit" causing the problem.

For awhile there, they were giving scads of money to any asshole who walked in the door, even if the "balloon" payment would eat up a huge chunk of the borrower's paycheck.

As a consequence, now, EVERYONE has to suffer and is being "punished" because the lending agencies failed to be responsible when there was a lot of money flying around. The piper's here and wants to be paid.

[Deep13]

4. yeah. nt

[MADem]

3. Sorry, clicked twice...

[cliffordu]

5. yep.

[TahitiNut]

6. Yup. We've mortgaged tomorrow and the market value of tomorrow has plummeted.

:shrug:

[Greyhound]

7. Well I'm certainly depressed. K&R.

[davidwparker]

8. Like the guy who wrote "Bush on the Couch" said ... Bush is on the brink of

his greatest failure; the destruction of the United States.

[Greyhound]

9. Kicking for the morning crew. n/t

[KharmaTrain]

10. It's A Cash & Carry Society...

Credit is tighter than a drum and until the debt bombs are either defused or cleaned up, the lid will remain, and this will be a death knell for a lot of businesses and jobs. Without credit, you can't move merchandise or cover the expenses and shortfalls that are part of running a business. And these days...with property values falling, what value a company or individual has is less...thus making it even tougher to get a loan.

The banks are hording money...trying to stay solvent and use whatever cash on hand to cover assets in case there's a run or another big market dump. Instead of renegotiating loans and using TARP money for lending, they're raising fees and trying to get cash wherever they can to keep their asses from going under. We're dangling by a thread here...ALL of us.

It's becoming more obvious that nationalizing the banking system will be imperative just to keep the system from totally imploding, isolating the bad debts and assets and then starting the credit flowing again. But this is months down the wrong...long, long months.

Hang tough my friend...you are definitely not alone!

[Postman]

11. If the banks aren't lending, how did I just refinance my mortgage? If there's a credit crunch...

how did I just purchase some books with my credit card?

I think the problem is the banks mega over-leveraged themselves in these credit default swaps and derivatives gambling schemes and are now holding back from making loans and credit grants in order to hedge their already pending colossal losses in the CDS and derivatives scam.

[Belial]

12. The banks and mortgage companies are actually still lending

quite a bit of money at some really good rates. In the middle of a refi at 4.67% on 15 years. I think the issue for some is that banks are actually checking to see if people can pay back what they are borrowing at this point.

[specialed]

13. A recession is when your neighbor gets laid off, a drepression is when you get laid off...

old line from the 70s recession period.

The way we use money is the entire cause of this problem. Research the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that started this mess.