Sunday, December 02, 2007

Ted Spread

Large Ted spread = bear market?

Michael Panzner shows a couple of ominous graphs:

One is the "TED spread" - the difference between interest rates charged by banks to each other, and short-term (and safe) Treasury bonds. A wider margin indicates that the market is charging more because it considers lending to be more risky, and the current TED spread is approaching 1987 levels.

The other shows the ratio of amount loaned out, to amounts of cash on deposit. Lenders are now very stretched.

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