Quote from Mike Morrison:
For starters you don't need bank lending to buy a house. The mass majority of home mortgages are FHA so in effect you're money is being lent to just about anyone who wants to buy a home. On the other hand, I just got a mortgage with 3% from a local bank with no problem at all.
A friend of mine runs a company that trains truck drivers. Just about all their customers have bad credit and have to borrow 100% of the tuition. These are private loans, not gov't student loans. They're busy as all hell so appartently someone is willing to give $6,500 to people with bad credit and no job.
I think this "there is no lending going on nonsense" is just that. Maybe there's less lending than in 2006 but it's far from being dead.