ajtj99's Market Pulse

[challo]

from Mauldin's When the Chickens Come Home to Roost


. . . . . Secondly, de-leveraging has a long way to run yet, not so much in the hedge fund community where I suspect that much of the damage will be behind us once we pass the next major redemption hurdle on 31st December, but in society more broadly. Governments, banks, (some but not all) companies and, most importantly, the majority of households are more leveraged than good is. I have borrowed Chart 7 below from BCA Research, and it shows total US bank loans as a percentage of US GDP. Unfortunately, the picture would be much the same for many of the European countries. We are now facing a major de-leveraging cycle and it will suppress economic growth and put a lid on the stock market for years to come.

http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2008/11/10/when-the-chickens-come-home-to-roost.aspx