Not Jumping On a Hot Stove OR a Cold Stove
Businesses Pinched as Loan Spigot Shuts Off
By David Cho and Thomas Heath Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, August 20, 2007; A01
U.S. corporations for years operated by the maxim that you have to borrow money to make money. Now, the well of cheap loans is running dry.
The corporate bond market, the MasterCard for U.S. companies, has slowed to levels not seen since the recession of the early 1990s, as rising defaults among mortgage borrowers are causing lenders to question loans going to companies as well.
Without a healthy bond market, a swath of corporate activity is eliminated and the economy slows down. Firms stop borrowing to buy drilling equipment for coal mines, plants for manufacturing cars and land for expanding restaurant chains.
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Follow the logic--it's just like following the bouncing ball. Banks and S&Ls made so many bad loans to people who had no credit for the unprofitable purchase of a home, that th…