Not God

There are limits to the powers of Bernanke, and even those levers of power available to him have other consequences if used. I have no idea how all of this will play out, but one shouldn't base one's optimism on the limited powers of mere mortals...

...and we have:

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. banks and thrifts suffered the biggest increase in late loan payments in 17 years as more homeowners fell behind on mortgages, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.

Loans more than 90 days past due rose 10.6 percent to $66.9 billion in the period ending June 30, the largest quarterly increase since 1990, the FDIC said in its Quarterly Banking Profile released today.

``The bottom line for banks is that the credit environment continues to be more challenging now than it has been in recent years,'' FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said during a news briefing at the agency's Washington headquarters.