Frozen credit: ice to see you

Don Boudreaux over at Cafe Hayek points out that we are continually reminded that credit has frozen, or is close to freezing. (In the Free Press today, Nicholas Hirst says that "borrowing isn't just becoming more expensive, loans are becoming difficult to get.") In spite of this, American Express was still able to mail an offer for a pre-approved credit card to Professor Boudreaux' 11-year-old son.

"And while his credit is pretty good with his mother and me, I'm very impressed that he's managed to establish his credit creds so firmly with a company that, if there's truth in today's told tale, has scant amounts money to lend."



Here in Canada, where we are told "Harpernomics" are leading us down the same 1929-esque road to ruin, my wife and I continue to receive offers in the mail for pre-approved credit cards from Capital One and Mastercard on a weekly basis. Phone calls from Capital One and others for a "Mr. or Mrs. Gal-stone" still come regularly.

Were the economy to really dry up entirely, easy credit would vanish in short order. Clearly, that has yet to happen. Since it was easy credit that led to the financial crisis in the first place, I would think that a severe market correction would ultimately be a good thing (and lighten my junk mail pile). Instead, Washington is working desperately this week to approve a plan to "rescue" the economy with more easy credit to improvident suckers--far more aggressively and forcefully than they have for the past several years.