I wasn't denying that there is a crisis at all. Just that some people's experience of it will differ based on their personal circumstances.
People are afraid to take new risks. They're skittish about what happened.
And regardless of interest rates, is it really true that financial institutions are making loans/capital available at something approaching normal levels? My impression is that they're skittish as well. If this is not still true, when did the dough actually start being available again?
Sorry, I wasn't calling you clueless or a troll, I was referring to the OP who said he had no credit card debt and therefore there was no financial crisis. He should care about not only himself, but his customers and his suppliers and everyones' financiers.
Yes, you are correct that most financial institutions are disasters. They are in the process of recapitalizing, meaning they are slowly collecting the spread between their lending and borrowing rates to rebuild their capital. The main point about interest rates is that if businesses, including banks, were healthy the low interest rates would cause money to flood into new investment, which is very clearly not happening. The whole point of fiscal stimulus is that virtually the only investment projects worth taking on in the midst of this kind of crisis are public sector ones. The long term impact of say, weaning ourselves off of over-consumption of petroleum, is a big boon to the national economy and would keep the economy at close to full employment.
Anyway, if you are really into this stuff there was
a pretty good story about the businesses and their preferences re: investment. It was in The Business Insider and since this is a site where guys and gals talk about dicks, I keep saying the name of that site while channeling my inner Beavis and Butthead.