Crucial economic number "near collapse with no end in sight"

The Federal Reserve issued its monthly Consumer Credit report for July. Consumer credit fell almost $22 billion to $2.74 trillion. The figure has been dropping fairly steadily since the middle of last year. The July number represents an annual rate of decline of more than 10%.

It should not shock anyone that $12 billion of the drop was in loans from commercial banks.

The government still has not discovered a way to get large financial firms to loan money. The economy is not likely to recover sharply until it does. Too much consumer liquidity comes from credit access through banks.