Professional Reading

With as many years in the financial industry as I have under my belt, sometimes I like to pretend that being an admin is even specifically relevant to this particular field. If nothing else, it occasionally yields interesting, or illuminating reading. Today, for instance, I ran across an actual, useful - and fairly stunning - FIGURE.

(A)s a result of the sluggish economy, bank failures and tighter credit at many banks, the amount of available credit for auto loans, credit cards, consumer-finance loans, student loans and other types of consumer credit declined to $433 billion this year, according to Equifax Inc. The total is down 51% from $887 billion in 2007.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703548604576037810735726984.html

News about the strictures in the credit market has been around long enough now to have become almost mental furniture. Its reportage is reassuringly vague, and leaves the possibility for people like me - people who aren't seeking out more loans, and whose debt is at the moment at least reasonably in hand (people who are inordinately blessed) - to sit back quietly and feel all non-threatened and stuff.

Fifty one percent. That is soberingly specific.