.......In August, bank loans to consumers were 9.5% higher than they were a year earlier--the fastest increase since 2004. The year-to-year increase in consumer and industrial loans was 15.5%, down only slightly from a recent record high of 21.6% in March. Real estate loans were up 4.1% for the 12-month period ending this August--flat lately, but not down.

Did bank lending suddenly turn south since August? The latest data is for the week ending Sept.17, when the U.S. expropriated 80% of AIG (nyse: AIG - news - people ) equity and thus tanked most financial stocks. U.S. bank credit hit a record of over $7 trillion in the latest week--up from $6.57 trillion a year earlier and $6.92 trillion a...

.......In August, bank loans to consumers were 9.5% higher than they were a year earlier--the fastest increase since 2004. The year-to-year increase in consumer and industrial loans was 15.5%, down only slightly from a recent record high of 21.6% in March. Real estate loans were up 4.1% for the 12-month period ending this August--flat lately, but not down.

Did bank lending suddenly turn south since August? The latest data is for the week ending Sept.17, when the U.S. expropriated 80% of AIG (nyse: AIG - news - people ) equity and thus tanked most financial stocks. U.S. bank credit hit a record of over $7 trillion in the latest week--up from $6.57 trillion a year earlier and $6.92 trillion at the end of July.

Economic journalists seem oddly fascinated with the last column of the table--interbank loans from one to another (aside from fed funds). "Banks won't even lend to each other," said a TV reporter, "so how can we expect them to loan to business or consumers?" But interbank loans are obviously tiny, and banks rightly regard lending to other banks more risky than lending to Main Street. There is no reason to expect the minuscule flow of interbank loans to determine consumer and business loans. That little tail can't wag the big dog.

The interest rate on interbank loans, the three-month London Interbank Lending Rate (LIBOR) rate, was a shade over 4% on Sept. 30, which inspired some scary talk on CNBC that morning. But a 3.9% LIBOR rate in January did not inspire such worries, nor did a 5.5% rate last September.

There has also been much hand-wringing about the wide "TED spread" between the very low interest rates on Eurodollars and the extremely low interest rates on three-month U.S. Treasury bills. But the TED spread does not predict recession--it flashed false alarms in September 1987 and December 1994 and provided no warning of the 2001 recession