That Light? It's a Train

Two of several interesting bits posted by Kevin Drum this morning at Mother Jones.

Nearly 25% of all mortgages are underwater "First American CoreLogic, the research firm that monitors housing equity, reported Tuesday that 11.3 million homeowners — or 24% of all homes with mortgages — were underwater as of the end of 2009."

And

Lending Falls at Epic Pace "U.S. banks posted last year their sharpest decline in lending since 1942, suggesting that the industry's continued slide is making it harder for the economy to recover."


In case it is not clear...this is not a recipe for an economic recovery. It's more like a recipe for economic collapse. How much spending do you think those 11.3 milion folks who are upside down on the mortgage are going to do on anything but the necessities? How many new businesses are going to happen and how many existing businesses are going to expand when they can't borrow money?