Wednesday, 26 November 2008 00:00

The argument we're in a credit crunch took an odd turn today when American Banking Association's Chief Economist Jim Chessen said,

...that despite the economic downturn, banks continue to lend.He noted banks' loans to businesses increased by more than 8 percent since last year, while loans to individuals increased nearly 7 percent.

Chessen also pointed to strong domestic deposit growth of 7.2 percent in the past year as people have turned to banks to safe-keep their money. I twittered this stat today and it raised some eyebrows, but it just shows the media skewing the public's impression on the current credit market. I will not argue we're in an overall bad economy, but the statistics show that more business loans were done in Q3 of 2008 versus Q3 of 2007. Pretty impressive given a few large bank's struggles.