Smarty_Pants

Caught in a Liquidity Trap

Alex is right. Local lending will continue regardless of what transpires on Wall Street.

The only ones who 'needed' the bailout were the big banks and businesses whose business models relied heavily on short-term borrowed money for day-to-day operations.

Those who operate wholly on revenues and profits will only be hurt by the bailout as they will be penalized with higher fees/taxes to keep the high rollers afloat.

Mase: Didn't mean to imply disagreement with your conclusions. Just pointing out that there isn't much upside to lending while there is a big potential downside. This is likely the primary reason why short term credit markets have seized up.

Keynesianism eventually runs into reality at some point, usually irreversably.