Need a Loan?
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Economy
The next move of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve will be an attempt to boost consumer credit by pumping $25 billion to $100 billion into a new program to be announced later today. The money will come from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
We’ll have to wait for the details before judging this newest program, but I’d be interested to know what percentage of consumers are not making purchases because of lack of credit. I’m sure there are some, but I wonder if increasing the availability of credit will significantly increase consumer activity. I mean, how many of us really want to go into more debt in this economy?
That said, consumer credit has become an essential part of our economy, particularly for large purchases. In principle, I have no problem with attempts to loosen up the moribund consumer credit market. I just hope the plan will allow responsible people to make responsible purchasers rather than incentivizing the taking on of untenable debt. God knows we’ve already had enough Americans bury themselves in credit woes.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
As always, when the government opens up a window with a big sign saying “Free Money Here” the line soon extends around the block. I am sure we, as bloggers, will have the opportunity to point with much hilarity and profound depression at those we will soon find in that line, hands out, pointing to the fine print, demanding their share and forcing the rest of us to pay the price of unintended consequences.