The Federal Reserve released the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) last week and the results were interesting. The percentage of banks increasing their Lending Standards fell from 50.8% for the second quarter to 33.9% for the third quarter. On the surface the drop in the number of banks tightening standards looks constructive but recessions have begun whenever the percent was above 25%. It’s likely that banks tightened standards in the second quarter in response to the regional bank crisis and the perceived higher risk of recession. GDP grew 4.9% in the third quarter and the...
