Guys, I'm sorry I've not been more on my game, what with moving and all. I'm able to post a few times today because the CFO is off-site and I can sorta play hooky for a couple hours.

So without further ado, here's some hard core info for y'all: The Federal Reserve is not only a source of interest rate targets, open market operations, etc, etc - they're also a great source of macro-economic information (the beige book) and money supply information. Banks have to report deposits, lending activity, etc, etc to the Fed. So if you're ever wondering "What is the big picture about the banking sector?" the best place to go is the Federal Reserve web sites. The St. Louis Fed is the fountain of banking and money information.

Want to know what the Fed sees that the people on CNBC don't? Well, here we go, some financial chart pornography for y'all:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NFORBRES?rid=19 

Wow. 

OK, want another one?

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BOGNONBR?cid=123 

Before posting here today, I hadn't bothered to do my regular checking up on the Fed's banking reserve information, 'cuz, well, I've been too busy moving. This, I now realize, has been a huge mistake on my part. Mea culpa.

When I pulled up this chart, I just about crapped my drawers. What this chart is telling us is that, in aggregate (ie, looking across the whole of the banking industry, you cannot extrapolate this to your local bank without examining your bank's books), the banks have no money to lend. They have no reserves to lend. They're in a hole like they've never been, and the Fed sees this data and knows that if banks are going to lend (in aggregate) they have nothing to lend unless the Fed injects cash into the banking system to allow the banks to lend.

So here's that flip side:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BORROW?cid=122 

This is, as you can see from the history on the charts, without precedent.

Given what I'm seeing on this chart, Mr. Bernanke is remarkably calm in public meetings. As SeniorCitizen said, he'd have to rope around your waist if he let you up on a second (or higher) story of a building if you knew the full depth of this stuff.

Trouble is, not even the banks that should know all this stuff know everything.