Large? Small? Less!!!

Continuing to browse the FRED, under "Business lending" I found these categories:
1. Commercial and Industrial Loans Made by Large Domestic Banks, and
2. Commercial and Industrial Loans Made by Small Domestic Banks.

I thought it would be interesting to look at them as a ratio, to look for consolidation in the industry. But when I looked at the graphs, my plans changed.

Maybe there was consolidation. Don't know. Probably was. Don't care. Not now.


You know, they say that economic growth in the 2000s was the worst performance since World War II. Well, you can see it in these graphs. Lending by both large and small banks was far less after 2000 than it was before.

This is for large banks:

This is for small banks:

Looks to me like the economy was so choked with debt that lending just wasn't happening like it did before.

And they say nobody saw it coming...