[GermanBJJ]

I think you aren't looking at the total information. The Federal Reserve has jurisdiction over all regulated commercial banking institutions. The FED does not, however, have jurisdiction over what is called the "Shadow Banking" system, or private unregulated banking institutions. Your FED numbers don't take into account the Shadow Banking system, only the regulated commercial banking system.

The "Shadow Banking" system, up until very recently, was responsible for 70% of all lending in the United States. Now the Shadow Banking system is in total meltdown. And that banking system is much larger than, and more leveraged than, the commercial banks.

So here is the problem that has developed: the system responsible for 70% of the lending in the US has imploded and, by looking at the TED spread, we know that the commercial banks have now basically stopped lending to each other.

So, as a commercial banker yourself, I am sure your firm is going well and still lending to credit-worthy individuals. But the commercial banking system isn't even close to large enough to provide the liquidity that the US economy was used to having pumped into it. The gears are grinding to a halt.