Legal Commentary

OK, This I Don't Like

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

In Evidence that we should freak out, episode I, RC3 points me to Grain piling up in Canadian ports | FP Passport:

Still think the global credit crunch is all about the TED spread and collateralized debt obligations? Think harder. Export-bound grain has started piling up in Canada as sellers have begun refusing to trust the credit lines and financial institutions linked to their foreign buyers.

The problem is that Canada’s export cargoes don’t get loaded until buyers can prove their ability to pay — proof that has been increasingly hard to come by in the wake of bank defaults and shrinking credit markets worldwide. Unable to get credit lines, many buyers have left the grain market, generating big losses for Canadian shippers. Add to this the greater costs that shippers now shoulder because of delayed payments, and the picture starts looking pretty bleak.

Krugman is right (again): if the IMF crowd can’t pull something fierce-looking out of the hat this weekend, next week is going to be a real shocker.

(But I find Evidence that we should freak out, episode II much less convincing. That sounds more like an investment opportunity than a looming disaster.)

Full post as published by Discourse.net on October 11, 2008 (boomark / email).