Revisiting the 'credit crunch'

Most of what you've been told about this "crunch" by various government officials, talking heads, fatuous print media types, and opportunistic self-styled blahgosphere doom and gloom "experts" is WRONG.

Excerpt:

"'It's just stabbing in the dark with trillions of dollars,' Octavio Marenzi, report author and head of Celent, told Reuters in a telephone interview where he questioned the depth of the analysis that preceded numerous fiscal stimulus packages.

The report, much of which is based on U.S. Federal Reserve data, challenges a long list of assumptions one by one, arguing that there is indeed a financial crisis but that, on aggregate, the problems of a few are by no means those of the many when it comes to obtaining credit.

'It is startling that many of (Federal Reserve) Chairman (Ben) Bernanke and (Treasury) Secretary (Henry) Paulson's remarks are not supported or are flatly contradicted by the data provided by the very organizations they lead,' said the report.

Perhaps the U.S. central bank and treasury department, and authorities in other countries by extension, know something they are not telling anyone and which is far more worrying than the public data shows, the report says.

Or, more plausibly, they were generalizing erroneously from the bad experience of a limited number of big banks and companies that are in any case in difficulty.

'I don't think they're fabricating stuff but what I think they are doing is taking the situation of a handful of institutions and generalizing that to the market as a whole, incorrectly,' said Marenzi."

(hat tip: Red Clay Citizen)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This "crisis" is mainly one of (lack of) confidence in a number of important key segments, brought into being in no small measure by the nattering nabobs of the Doom-and-Gloom society, many of whom were keen in talking the economy down and pandering to base fear levels in order to pump up a manufactured presidential candidacy of Hope 'n Change We Can Believe In, and to achieve a cherished agenda item of establishing more control over financial elements of our society.

The Pump worked too well, and got out of control, leaving us with an empty suited "progressive" president-elect of little experience and substance fitted to manage the task ahead of righting the damage done by the arrogant know-it-alls-who-know-nothing.

Let's pray to God that his cabinet and economic advisers rise above their putative "leader", and are able to correct the damage already done while preventing the infliction of further damage to our economy.