On the question of whether or not banks are lending and also where the level of demand is for loans, weekly Commercial and Industrial loan data (out on Friday) can be a helpful gauge. C&I loans outstanding for the week ended Aug 5th fell by $4.6b to $1.475t, the lowest since the week ended Feb 13th ’08. It’s fallen for 9 of the past 10 weeks. The peak seen was $1.654t outstanding back in Oct ’08. In the prior recession, C&I loans fell gradually from Jan ’01 through May ’04 even though the recession technically ended in Nov ’01 according to the NBER.
