Federal Reserve commercial paper outstanding number(ZT)

What Future Does the Credit Crunch Bring?

Mr Practical  Sep 07, 2007 9:30 am When you have too much debt, how can you be confident?

As the general public is fed old financial news day in and day out byTV, news of what happened already, let’s look at some forward-lookingcurrent facts.

Themost important data release yesterday was the weekly Federal Reservecommercial paper outstanding number. Asset-backed commercial paper fella further 3.1% for the week to $966.7 bln. Overall commercial paperoutstanding fell by $54.1 bln. Total commercial paper outstanding hasfallen 13.4% in one month. During the 2001 downturn, commercial paperpeaked in November 2000 and slid through to December 2003. Over thatthree-year period it declined by only 22%.

15-day commercialpaper is yielding 6.3%, 90 basis points higher than a month ago.Treasuries are 200 basis points below these levels.

Credit in the system is contracting fast. As a result, signs of weakness in the economy will appear fast. ..