Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A Shopping List


At FRED, in the search box I type TOTAL CREDIT MARKET DEBT and press ENTER.

I get a list of 32 data series (as of 16 July 2011) including TCMDO, debt owed.

There is also debt owed by Domestic Nonfinancial sectors, and debt owed by Domestic Financial sectors.

I still think it emphasizes our flawed focus, that these two sectors are called financial and non-financial, rather than financial and productive, or maybe non-productive and productive. I think it says a lot about the way we look at things and what's wrong with our economy.

In addition to Domestic Financial and Domestic Nonfinancial, there is one non-domestic category: Foreign Sectors - Rest of the World Credit Market Instruments, Excluding Corporate Equities Liability.

The domestic categories are subdivided. Under Domestic Nonfinancial one finds

  • Household sector
  • Federal Government
  • State and Local Governments
  • Farm Business
  • Nonfarm Noncorporate Business
  • Nonfinancial Corporate Business


Under Domestic Financial one finds

  • Agency- and GSE-backed Mortgage Pools
  • Government-Sponsored Enterprises
  • REITs
  • ABS Issuers
  • Commercial Banking

    • Commercial Banking, U.S.-Chartered Commercial Banks
    • Commercial Banking, Bank Holding Companies
    • Commercial Banking, Foreign Banking Offices in U.S.
  • Funding Corporations
  • Brokers and Dealers
  • Saving Institutions
  • Finance Companies
  • Life Insurance Companies
  • Credit Unions


In addition to these, there are BofAML categories. All of these categories end with the phrase "Plus Sub-Index Total Return Index Value", which I have removed (after having typed them all in) to make the list more readable:

  • Public Sector Issuers Emerging Markets Corporate
  • Private Sector Issuers Emerging Markets Corporate
  • Non-Financial Emerging Markets Corporate
  • Financial Emerging Markets Corporate
  • Public Sector Issuers US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate
  • Private Sector Issuers US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate
  • Non-Financial US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate
  • Financial US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate


But these all turn out to be some "index" measure. Not some portion of total debt.


Just your typical Saturday morning exercise.

2 comments:

Sackerson said...

I sometimes feel it's all intentionally complex, to keep the punters from understanding the shell game. Paranoia, I guess.

The Arthurian said...

I just wish I could change those stupid flower graphics to plain dots, when I make lists!